With This Ring
by ChocolateEclar
Summary: Three years after Conrad’s Fate. Betrothals with psychotic enchantresses, silver allergies, gold rings, and children running amok in Chrestomanci Castle. When all Millie wants is some peace over ‘the hols,’ she... Full summary inside. ChristopherMillie.
1. Mama Knows Best

**With This Ring**

_By: ChocolateEclar_

Disclaimer: I do not pretend to own Chrestomanci or the Related Worlds. I only own the random children that appear to mess up things every once in a while. Everything else but the plot is the property of Diana Wynne Jones.

**Dedication:** For my fellow DWJ book fanatic, Artemis Obscure, aka Mel. (Yes, I know I need to be locked up, Mel, but then there wouldn't be any more Millie/Christopher-ness.)

_**Summary:** (Takes place 3 years after Conrad's Fate) Betrothals with psychotic Japanese enchantresses, silver allergies, gold rings, and children running amok in Chrestomanci Castle. When all Millie wants is some peace over 'the hols,' she gets a multi-world struggle for Christopher's lives and her own. (Of course, it will be Christopher/Millie, Elizabeth/Antonio, and Gabriel/Throgmorten…just kidding on the later of course.)_

**A/N: You will notice that a lot of characters – pretty much as many as I can – are pulled into this story. You also will notice that the main people in Chrestomanci Castle that are here, aside from Christopher, Gabriel, and Millie are a bunch of older teenagers and young adults by the names of Conrad, Bernard, Jason, Elizabeth, and Henrietta. That would be because of this quote from the POV of Conrad from the end of _Conrad's Fate_:**

_**"… I spent six blissfully happy years at Chrestomanci Castle, learning magic I never dreamed existed and making friends with all the other young enchanters being educated there – Elizabeth, Jason, Bernard, Henrietta, and the rest…"**_

**"The rest" became the children you see all over the castle getting into things. As for Elizabeth, she is obviously Tonino Montana's mother Elizabeth, who is in _The Magicians of Caprona_ and obviously knows Christopher quite well by the way she greets him, so I figured out that she was the same Elizabeth that was taught with Conrad and Christopher and such. **

**Bernard is the man in _Charmed Lives_ that is described as a "small man with large eyebrows and a loud voice" that talks about stocks and shares. **

**Excerpt from _The Lives of Christopher Chant_: "I am in the middle of arranging with the Ministry to bring a number of young enchanters here to be trained. At the moment, you know, I am only able to employ them as domestics – like young Jason the bootboy over there – but this will shortly change."**

**So that explains who Jason is.**

**I hope I got those three right, or at least what could be probable as them as young adults.**

**I couldn't who Henrietta is, so I have given her a personality of my own choosing. If anyone does spot her in the books though, let me know and I'll see if I can fix things. Now go on and read and review.**

_**Chapter One: Mama Knows Best**_

Millie entered the bedroom to find Christopher lying on the bed on his back worrying the gold ring that hung around his neck from a chain between his thumb and index finger with his eyes shut. He gave the distinct impression of one who has just tripped and fallen to his current position and then not bothered to get up.

"Hello. Where have you been that you're so tired?" Millie asked with a faint smile. She was sure he was not too worn-out. It would take quite a bit more than a little trip to another world, if that was where he had gone, to wear down Christopher Chant completely.

The future Chrestomanci did not open his eyes to reply. Instead, he blew a long stream of air and sighed, "Series Seven."

Millie's eyes widened in surprise before she said, "You touched their silver?" Series Seven silver had the oddest effect on Christopher of all the Related Worlds. After a little while in contact with it, he tended to look like death.

"Yes, Conrad would have had a time levitating me out of a silver mine," Christopher remarked. "Too bad he was here. He could have been of use in that maze of silver."

Millie smiled slightly. It had taken quite a bit to get Christopher to stop calling their friend Conrad Tesdinic from Series Seven by his uncle's last name, Grant, which he had used in Stallery Mansion as a disguise. "Grant isn't even his real last name," Millie had hissed. It was Conrad who always made Christopher see sense though. He calmly threatened to call Christopher by the plain false last name _Christopher_ had used when he was looking for Millie in Stallery Mansion, at the same time Conrad was there, because she had run away from school and he did not want Gabriel to find him.

"What induced me to choose _Smith_?" Christopher had said in disgust, but after that he had called Conrad by his proper first name.

Christopher's words finally sunk in. "A silver mine?" she repeated with alarm.

"Yes," said Christopher with a wry smile. "I must say I was at least not as ill as I was when I was _trying_ to be back in Stallery."

"Are the effects gone?" Millie asked. "And what in Ash – I mean, why were you called to there of all places?"

"I am the official field Chrestomanci since Gabriel is getting on in years," Christopher sighed. "I'm the one they call now for these stupid tasks. It's just my luck that the one on Series Seven had to do with a disturbance coming from a silver mine."

As it was her first day back from school for the holidays, Millie was surprised Christopher had left his new position out of his letters to her. She had strictly ordered him to tell her everything that went on at Chrestomanci Castle, even if it was only to tell her that their fellow magic students Jason and Bernard had had a cake eating contest and gotten terribly sick afterwards.

"I'm sure Gabriel could have sent someone else after you realized that," Millie noted.

Christopher gave her a bland look that said quite plainly what he thought about asking Gabriel for help. "You would rather be sick?" Millie asked with her hands on her hips. Her straight brown hair had been piled on her head in some sort of fashion she had learned at school that term and her dress was neat and prim and full of petticoats, but she could just imagine herself as the little girl again in the Asheth temple with her many bangles and jewels and feet-sticking spells staring down Christopher in much the same way as she did now.

Christopher shut his eyes again. The ring dropped from his fingers, and for a moment Millie thought she imagined his hand shaking. "I will let you know when the room is quite done doing its silly dances around my head," he groaned.

"But there isn't any silver in here," said Millie. "Why are you still sick?"

She went over to his bed and brushed the dark hair away from his forehead and then smoothed her hand against the skin. There was a little crackle of magic, in which Christopher swore and Millie cried out and snapped her hand back to cradle it in her other one, and then there was a knock at the door.

Christopher waved at her to get the door, while he went to look at his forehead in the bathroom. He managed not to trudge his feet much, Millie noticed, though she could tell he was almost too tired to stand. She wondered about that as she opened the door, calling to whoever was outside, "Yes?"

"Oh, Millie," said Bernard said with a smile as if he expected her to be there. "Is Chris there?"

Christopher poked his head around the bathroom door looking a bit greener than Millie remembered from a few seconds before and said, "Good Lord, don't call me that. It's almost as bad as your calling Henrietta _'Little Red Hen!'_ Now what is it?"

"Elizabeth and Con are entertaining two folks downstairs," explained Bernard. "Do the names Miranda and Cosimo Chant mean anything to you?"

"Oh God," said Christopher among other things. "I think I might actually be sick now."

* * *

Millie watched from her place into one of the peepholes looking into the Little Drawing Room beside Elizabeth and Conrad with mild surprise as Mr. and Mrs. Chant greeted their only child. Christopher seemed to have hair as glossy as his mother's and to be as tall and dark-haired as his father, even though Cosimo's hair was streaked with white. It was very apparent where Christopher had gotten his handsome features by the smooth, wrinkle-free skin of Miranda Chant. 

However, Millie found that she did not like Christopher's mother at all. She could not place why even later when she was discussing it with the two other older girls in the castle, Elizabeth and Henrietta. There were a handful of other young magic-wielding girls in Chrestomanci Castle, but none that Millie got along with so well.

Christopher had on his vaguest look, one that Millie had begun to call his _I-am-pretending-I'm-in-a-world-far-away_ expression, as Cosimo Chant asked him questions about how his studies were coming and how much work Gabriel de Witt was giving him.

"No one has the right to be so pretty _and_ over forty," whispered Henrietta, as she appeared and looked over their shoulders into the room at the three Chants. She was red-haired and petite with very wide blue eyes behind big spectacles.

"We came to discuss the family, darling," Miranda Chant said, as she sat elegantly in a purple armchair with her white skirts spread out around her.

"Yes," added Cosimo. "As you know, your cousins Francis and Caroline are getting married – "

"Against the family's wishes – " interrupted Miranda with a scornful grimace.

"We don't agree with their decision, but we do agree with the result," said Cosimo. "I've checked the horoscopes – "

"Even though those things are _so_ unreliable – " sighed Miranda.

"And we have decided that it's time you married as well – " Cosimo continued with a weary glance at Miranda.

"To keep up the family name, you know, darling," Miranda said.

Millie saw Christopher's shoulders tighten slightly, but otherwise his _I-am-pretending-I'm-in-a-world-far-away_ expression stayed in place. Millie felt rather as if she would ignore everything she had ever learned in finishing school and hitch up her skirts and run screaming at Miranda Chant if she said "darling" again.

Instead, she turned from the peephole. Bernard and Henrietta were whispering out farther in the hallway. She could hear snatches of "Chris…stupid lad…trying…" from Bernard.

"Do you think…what if he…_Millie_ – " Henrietta abruptly cut off her sentence when she saw Millie. "So what is going on in there?" she asked, while indicating the Little Drawing Room with a nod of her head in its direction.

"I think Christopher's been betrothed," said Millie with a bit of effort. At the horror-stricken looks on Bernard and Henrietta's faces, she added, while trying to reassure herself as well as them, "Isn't that great for Christopher? I mean, he'll finally be out of our hair, and we should be happy for him for that too. Well, I should be happy for him, but..." Millie trailed off and finished her sentence in her head, Drat! Why am I thinking like this! I don't like him _that_ way

"They can't think Chris would – " began Bernard when he had gotten over the shock at the same time Henrietta gasped, "Why on Earth would – "

At that moment they were interrupted by a boy sliding down the banister of the main stairway towards them shouting, "Look at me!"

When Millie was sure he would crack his head open if she did not help him, the boy vanished and reappeared at her side. She let out a relieved sigh at the same time as Bernard. Henrietta just smiled and said, "You naughty boy, Peter."

"You three are just no fun, sissy," said the boy with a grin. He then vanished again.

Millie shook her head. It was such a change to have so many magic-using children in the castle. When she had appeared in the castle cold and wet with only a kitten as a companion so many years ago, she had been quite sure that nothing could make the castle come to life. It had been so stiflingly and forbidding, but now she could easily call it home with children like Henrietta's five younger brothers (all of whom had just learned transportation and were using it every chance they could as long as Gabriel was not around).

"Millie!" hissed Elizabeth, as she made motions with her hands to come back to the Little Drawing Room peepholes.

Complying, Millie was met with the sight of Christopher arguing with his mother. "I am not marrying her," Christopher said with a tense set to his mouth that showed he was repeating himself. Later, Elizabeth would explain to Millie that Miranda and Cosimo had met a distant second cousin of the emperor of Japan and his daughter, Gin Leiko. The daughter had been arranged to be Christopher's fiancée.

"Christopher, you must. I have already arranged for her to visit you here," Miranda insisted. "She is just the nice, pretty, well bred girl you need."

Millie could have sworn she felt Miranda's eyes on her then, even though she was hidden behind a wall and only her eye was visible if you squinted right at the peephole, but when she searched the pretty face for any sign of this, there were only a sweet smile playing on Miranda's lips that was directed at Christopher imploringly.

"She's almost as bad as the Countess, well, Dorothea Brown, I mean," sighed Conrad with a slight grin. Millie nodded in agreement. She found Cosimo Chant not much better. He was standing behind Miranda's chair looking firm.

"You will be married to the woman we have chosen, son, just like my horoscopes show," Cosimo said.

For a moment, Millie thought Christopher might just lose his temper, but instead he stared coolly at his parents with an expression that was not in the least bit vague. "I'm sorry I'm going to disappoint you both so much," he said. "I thought that maybe you had given up with worrying over my fate since I'm going to be the next Chrestomanci. I guess that isn't quite high enough of a status for your darling, right, Mama?"

Millie was sure there would be screaming next, but all there was instead was Miranda giving Cosimo a look that told him to talk more sternly to Christopher. Cosimo gave Christopher a placating smile and said, "Come now, son, your mother and I only want what is best for you."

Christopher did not reply. He simply vanished in much the same way as Peter.

* * *

Millie found him much later. Miranda had wondered aloud for hours what Gabriel and his horrible, stiff people had done to her respectful little baby to make him talk to her insolently, while Cosimo had explained the engagement of Christopher to Gin Leiko to Gabriel de Witt. By the extra pinched set to Gabriel's lips, Millie was sure that he highly doubted that Christopher could be forced into an arranged marriage.

Millie doubted it too. When she found Christopher, he was worrying the gold ring on the chain around his neck in his hand again, while he stared out the window of the tower he had furnished for her when she had snuck into his room from Series Ten. He did not look so much vague as anxious, she noticed. When he realized she was there, Christopher quickly tucked the ring and chain under his shirt and turned to face her.

Even with his vague look, he still appeared troubled, as he asked, "Have my parents vanished to Series Eleven and now having a battle of stubborn wills with the Dright?"

"It's a good thought," said Millie, "but I'm afraid it's just one of your daydreams."

"I don't _just_ daydream when I'm thinking," Christopher protested. He seemed to be cheering up though.

"You could have fooled me," said Millie. "Half of the time I swear you're off on Series Nine lost in some hot jungle when we're trying to talk to you."

Christopher gave a wry smile and said, "Never with you, Millie. When you're around I swear I am at full attention… unless you one day have a large tome of Magical Theory and are therefore in cohorts with Gabriel. Then, I would wash my hands of you."

Millie found herself grinning at him. She felt like an idiot. It was just that she liked bantering with Christopher, if only because it made him act a bit more like he was present and attentive. She was about to reply to him when Elizabeth appeared at the top of the stairs. She was leading a young Italian man by the hand that she had told Millie just that morning, upon Millie's return for the holidays to the castle, was Antonio Montana, a member of a spell-house in Caprona, who was visiting England on holiday.

Elizabeth froze at the sight of Christopher and Millie standing side-by-side at the window looking at her and said, "Oh, Millie, this is Antonio, remember? Christopher, meet Antonio Montana."

"It's a pleasure," said Christopher. Millie could have sworn that as his grin grew, Elizabeth's face became redder.

Antonio was thin and dark-haired. He smiled at Christopher and Millie and said, "Elizabeth just wanted to show me the view from up here."

Even Millie did not believe him. She had taken to reading the young adult volumes of the _Millie_ books, such as _Millie of Lowood High_,_ Millie and the Boy Next Door_, _Millie and the Passionate First Kiss_, and _Millie of Lowood University_. Christopher had gotten her the last one and several others as a beginning of term present for her when she had returned to school in the fall that year. He had sent it to her dormitory with a card that read:

_I was looking for something lacking in slush for myself, when I stumbled upon these. Think of this as another payment for Throgmorten. See you during the 'hols.'_

_Yours,_

_**Christopher**_

The signature had nearly blinded her. She supposed he had been practicing it again or had made it that way just to surprise her.

The young adult _Millie_ books had taught her that girls and boys sneaking off together tended to be more than friends. Though, I am alone with Christopher a lot too, she thought suddenly. But that's totally different!

"Well, you two get on with that star-gazing," Christopher was saying when she was attending again.

Millie followed Christopher out of the tower and down the stairs. She glanced back at the last moment to see Antonio and Elizabeth at the window in the same spot she and Christopher had been, but the difference was Antonio had his arm draped over Elizabeth's shoulders and she was leaning her head on him.

Smiling, Millie reached the bottom of the steps a few moments later to see Christopher vanish before her eyes. She was surprised before she realized he must have been needed on another world. He had looked so tired, but she did not muse over it for long. Several screaming girls ran by her just then.

They were not as loud as they could have been if the castle spells had not been in place, but she still felt it her duty to keep them from disturbing the peace of the castle so much. She held up her hand to freeze all of them in whatever act they had been in with their feet stuck firmly to the floor just as one had been preparing to cast a spell on another girl that would have made the girl's skin green.

The caster, a pretty ten-year-old named Rachel with a very strong gift of physical manipulations, such as skin color changing spells, had been about to jump as she had been casting, so she was now caught with one foot stuck to the ground and the other in midair. Millie smiled and said, "Come now, Elizabeth is up there wooing a man, your disturbances are more of use together to bother her than to bother each other. Is that clear?"

Several of them, being young enchantresses, tried to fight the thick netting of spell holding them in place to nod their heads, but you did not fight a trained enchantress's magic. Millie unfroze their bodies and unstuck their feet. She grinned as they raced quietly up the stairs to the tower.

A chorus of "_Eww!_ They're kissing!" came from upstairs with a shriek from Elizabeth, followed by "Elizabeth and Antonio sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

Feeling much better about her first day back in Chrestomanci Castle then she had at hearing Christopher was to be betrothed, Millie strolled down the hall. She did not even mind much when later that evening Elizabeth found out it was Millie who had set the children on her and Antonio and furiously scattered Millie's book collection throughout the castle and put strong misdirection spells on them so that Millie could not use magic to find them.

* * *

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A/N: Now that you've read this, let me know what you think in a review please. **

**Next chapter: Meet Gin Leiko, Christopher's 'fiancée.' Millie gets jealous when Gin uses some of her strange foreign spells to impress Christopher, while Henrietta, Bernard, Conrad, Jason, and Elizabeth try to get Millie to take action.**


	2. Secrets, Schemes, and Smiles

**With This Ring**

_By: ChocolateEclar_

Disclaimer: I do not pretend to own Chrestomanci or the Related Worlds. I only own the random children that appear to mess up things every once in a while. Everything else but the plot is the property of Diana Wynne Jones.

**Review Responses:**

**To Rowana S:** As I am, well, American, I don't find it too surprising that I went American-esque in some spots. I am trying to give this as genuine a feel of something written by an amazing British author such as DWJ as I can. Let me know if I do better in this chapter. Thanks for reviewing.

**To Artemis Obscure:** You have my response already. And of course it's dedicated to you! You're the one who is always here to get my butt in gear, and you're probably the first DWJ fanatic I met on this site.

**To anon:** Your update is here. Thanks for the review.

**To JB Van Laan:** As you'll see in my author's note, I figured out who Jason is by accident yesterday. Thanks a lot though. I was worried about him because I was sure there had been a Jason somewhere. I thought myself that maybe Miss Bessemer was Henrietta too, but in one part she's mentioned as Maud and that's her official first name on DWJ's website, so I'm back to square one. I looked for a Henrietta on the site as well, but she seems to be nowhere to be found. So for now at least, Henrietta is a short, red-haired girl with glasses. Thanks a bunch for reviewing!

**To Demonprincess81, Moonlight at Midnight, and Lovely Acid:** Isn't Millie/Christopher great? Too bad there is so little of it in the actual series.

**To Skep:** As you'll see in my author's note and my response to JB Van Laan's review, I did figure out who Jason is as well. Thanks a lot though. He finally actually appears in this chapter… and so does his ferret of course.

**A/N: This would have been posted sooner, but it was being beta-ed. Here it is though. I have the next several chapters written, but I am going to be on vacation for a few days, so until then, read on and review please.**

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* * *

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_**Chapter Two: Secrets, Schemes, and Smiles**_

Millie ran into Christopher the day after he vanished again, while she was still trying to find her scattered books. He looked, if possible, worse than he had last time he had returned.

"You didn't go to Series Seven again I hope?" she asked, while peering around the library looking for _Millie and the Spring Holiday in London_. It was the only book of hers that she had not found yet and she loved it almost as much as _Millie and the Passionate First Kiss_.

"No, Series Six," Christopher said, as he leaned against a bookshelf.

"Aren't they in an Ice Age?" Millie asked absently.

"Most definitely so," Christopher replied. "You would have hated it." He tried to say something else but it came out more like a hacking cough than anything else.

"If you caught a cold, you had better stay away from me," Millie warned, as she went to stand on a ladder and look at the higher shelves.

"Just a chill," said Christopher. "Now, what are you looking for?"

Millie explained how she had told the children to bother Elizabeth. He grinned and hack-laughed again. "I'm sorry I missed it," he said. "Are my parents still here, by the way?"

"Yes, Gabriel had them taken to a room on the other end of the castle," Millie said. "Your mother says that you have two months to get used to the idea of your new fiancée because that is when Gin Leiko is coming from Japan," Millie continued with disgust.

Christopher grimaced and said, "If they ask for me, I'm still on Series Six."

"Where are you going?" Millie queried, while staring down at him from her perch on the ladder.

"To see Mordecai, I need a chat with someone with a sound mind right now," Christopher stated.

"What am I then?"

Christopher just hack-laughed and said, "Your book is on top of the bookshelf by the window right over there," and then promptly vanished.

* * *

Over the next two warm summer months, Christopher was very seldom around. He seemed to spend a lot of time with Mordecai Roberts and Miss Rosalie in their pretty little cottage miles and miles away. Millie had a feeling that Christopher needed Mordecai's company to keep him from screaming at his parents.

Miranda and Cosimo Chant, Millie thought, are the single most-annoying people I have ever met. They remind me of Mr. and Mrs. Lilac in _Millie and the Art of Courtship_!

Meanwhile, Antonio, Millie decided, was a good match for Elizabeth. Elizabeth loved music and had a pretty singing voice that Henrietta and Millie longed to have. Being born of a spell-house in Caprona, Antonio had a love of music just as strong. He had to have a nice voice for Italian spells were mostly sung and Millie thought his voice was just as beautiful as Elizabeth's. It did not surprise her much that after Antonio had been in England for two months, Elizabeth announced he had proposed to her.

In her room, she showed Millie, Henrietta, and some of the little girls the simple white gown she had bought and how she had put a spell on it to add beading to the bodice and to make it shimmer even in total darkness.

The wedding was held in the church in Bowbridge and was to be fairly private. None of Antonio's family members were invited because he knew they would object to him marrying an English girl.

Millie and Henrietta, the Brides' Maids, wore matching blue gowns with purple irises (that Millie had managed to beg and plead with the castle gardeners to allow her to pick) in their hair, while ten-year-old little Rachel, the Flower Girl, wore a yellow dress and threw blue flower petals down the aisle.

Christopher was chosen to be Antonio's Best Man. Millie thought he looked very nice in his expensive blue-black suit and shiny shoes. He was a very tall, dark pillar who stood behind Antonio just like Millie and Henrietta stood behind Elizabeth as she reached the altar. Spending two months mostly away from the castle must agree with him, she thought. She knew that it had more to do with avoiding his parents than anything else though.

Sitting in the front pew, Gabriel looked like he always did, if not a little pleased by what would become of one of his young pupils now. Elizabeth had told him that she would be leaving soon enough for Caprona to announce her marriage to her new in-laws.

Also sitting in the front row were Bernard and Jason and ten children of varying ages and genders. Miranda and Cosimo Chant and most of the staff of the castle had been seated behind them in their finest clothes. Miranda looked stunning as always in pink frills and lace and glossy curls.

Millie wished they had not been invited, but Christopher had explained that if Elizabeth did not let them come, then his mother would have been deeply offended. Millie thought that she did not care much if Miranda was offended. Christopher might not have wanted to argue with his mother, but Millie had no such qualms.

Millie felt a smile break out on her face and her eyes fill with tears, as Elizabeth started to say her vows, "With this ring, I thee wed…"

Millie glanced at the others to see if they found the vows as wonderful as she did. Henrietta was wiping her spectacles with her sleeve as she cried, and in the pews, Jason and Bernard were grinning.

Across the altar and over Antonio's shoulder, a tall figure was staring right back at her. Christopher gave her the most beautiful smile she had ever seen. For a moment, she did not hear anything but the vows and all she could see was that smile. She noticed dimly that the gold ring made with one of Christopher's lives was visible in public outside his shirt for once. It hung from its gold chain and rested on his blue silk cravat.

She finally looked away when Antonio and Elizabeth kissed with a great cheer from the crowd.

* * *

The party after the wedding in the front yard of the castle was one to be remembered for quite a while. There were children like Peter, his four brothers, and other boys pulling pranks on the adults until Christopher rounded them up and announced, "All right, young lads, who is set to play cricket?"

Then, the boys, tons of the girls with their skirts tied up, and a great majority of the staff broke into two teams. For a reason she could not fathom, she was chosen as a captain of one team with Christopher as captain of the other.

Millie's team, even with good players such as Jason and Bernard, were trounced by Christopher's. "You cheated I bet," teased Millie, as she walked alongside Christopher up the pathway to the castle from the cricket field.

"Not at all," he said. "I gave you a fair chance at least, even though I worried about you holding a cricket bat. I've already lost one life because of getting hit with one. I did not think Gabriel would forgive me if I lost another."

"I don't play that poorly," Millie claimed, as she shoved him lightly with her shoulder. As they entered the castle, Millie tried not to notice the look Miranda Chant gave her from where she sat beside Cosimo. Millie glanced down at her dirty feet (for she had taken off her shoes to play) in her heels and the muddy patch at the front of her dress where it had come unpinned and tracked through the dirt, as she had been trying to run the bases.

A woman like that will never accept someone like me, she thought. I don't need her to though. I'm not the one marrying her son.

"That was probably the worst attempt at spin bowling I have ever seen," Christopher said with a grin.

"Why thank you," said Millie dryly, but she did not mind much.

It was then that Miranda and Cosimo Chant suddenly sprung to their feet and hurried towards the front door where a young woman Millie had never seen before had her bags taken away by the footman. Millie suddenly felt ill.

"Why hello, Miss Leiko! What a pleasure it is to see you again, dear," said Miranda as she greeted the young woman.

"It is a pleasure I gladly receive," said the woman with no accent at all or even any emotion in her brown eyes. She had a very smooth voice that flowed from her cherry red lips. Her hair was straight and black with a cloth flower pinned in it. She wore a kimono with long, flowing sleeves with gold flowers upon a red background and looked absolutely gorgeous to Millie. She tried to hide the muddy spot on her skirts, as Miranda turned to Christopher and said, "Christopher, this is Leiko-_san_."

Christopher, who seemed to have developed a greenish hue to his skin now, greeted Gin Leiko. He then proceeded to do something that made Millie squirm. "This is one of the other students here under Gabriel de Witt, Miss Millie." He said this so formally that Millie felt as grand as Gin Leiko for a moment before those cool brown eyes of hers fell upon Millie.

Millie tried to smile as she said, "How do you do, Miss Leiko?" but she ended up with a pained grimace. I'm not anywhere near that pretty or grand, she thought.

Millie bit her lip. What is wrong with me lately? she wondered.

"I am fine," said Gin coolly. She then turned back to Miranda and Cosimo, and they talked as the footman took Gin to her room.

"What does she have stuck up her – " began Jason, as he came up behind Christopher and Millie with his pet ferret Hugh on his shoulder. He was tall and had a middle-build with brunette hair and a roguish smirk. He had come a long way from being the castle boot boy to being an enchanter and student of magic in his own right.

"_Jason_," said Henrietta warningly. Jason's foul mouth was Henrietta's pet peeve. She would glare at him from her five feet up to his head a foot and three inches above hers. "I think she's very pretty in any case."

Millie felt that was a bit of an understatement. She glanced at Christopher to see what he thought. His face had gone greener than before.

* * *

It's the silver, Millie realized before long. She wears gobs and gobs of silver jewelry.

Millie, who had long ago locked away her silver bangles, felt this was terribly unfair to Christopher to make him go for strolls with his fiancée when she was wearing silver earrings and necklaces and bracelets. It seemed to have a strong effect on Christopher at that. Whereas her bracelets had only affected him if they touched him, just walking beside Gin made Christopher ill.

This did not anger Millie as much as what they did on their walks. Gin spent the entire time showing him all her foreign little spells.

"I mean, come on, Henrietta, she showed him a silver polishing spell today!" Millie shrieked. "Is she that dumb or has no one told her that Christopher is allergic! For that matter, why hasn't he told her himself?"

Henrietta gave Millie a secretive little grin and said, "Why don't you ask him?"

"He's out on one of the walks right now though," hissed Millie. "I can't face that woman. She's horrible."

"I haven't seen her doing anything too terrible," Henrietta claimed. "It's not her fault she's ignorant about Christopher's allergy. Stop acting like his keeper."

"His keeper?" said Millie, raising an eyebrow. "Where did you get that idea?"

Smiling wider, Henrietta just walked away. "Henrietta!" Millie called after her. "Henrietta, what do you mean? Stop grinning like that!"

It was then that Christopher appeared in the hallway arm-in-arm with Gin. Christopher gave her a vague look, while Gin asked grandly, "What is the yelling for, Miss Millie?" After her first day at the castle, she had stopped wearing kimonos and instead worn beautiful gowns that Millie suspected cost one of the diamonds a piece in the chest Mother Proudfoot had left her for tuition. The one she was wearing at the moment was emerald green with black lace trimming.

Millie went red, but privately she was pleased to see that Christopher was using his actual bored looks on Gin. It meant he had given up on using his _I-am-pretending-I'm-in-a-world-far-away_ expression on her. He had never given Millie a bored expression before.

"Come and walk with us, Millie," said Christopher. She could tell by his face that it was more of a plea than anything else. Christopher unfastened Gin's grip on his arm and strolled in between Gin and Millie.

"Christopher tells me that you are from another world," said Gin Leiko sweetly with a cool smile.

How can anyone sound so sweet and have as much expression as a block of ice? Millie wondered as she said, "Oh, yes." She felt horribly dumb just saying that, so she added, "A world in Series Ten, you know."

"Why did you come to Series Twelve?" asked Gin in the same polite tone that made Millie want to forget all of her schooling and throttle her. It was just too cultured and perfect!

There were a million ways Millie could have responded, such as "I was going to be sacrificed" or "Well, I was the Living Asheth and…" or something at least close to the truth, but instead Millie found she could not bring herself to reply to the young woman with anything but a vague answer. "Things weren't working out," she said.

Christopher bit his lip to keep from laughing. "That's a bit of an understatement, don't you think?" he whispered in her ear. She could see the faint outlines of that beautiful smile on his face.

Gin Leiko, who Millie realized must have thought Christopher and her had a private joke or something, smiled slightly, while still looking totally emotionless, and said, "You have the look of someone who was subjected to servitude years ago. Were you some kind of unhappy servant under a cruel master that Christopher met on his world travels?"

Millie did not think Gin could have picked something farther from the truth, but it was Christopher who said, "She was a goddess."

"Oh, how we do fall from grace," said Gin Leiko pityingly.

Millie saw Christopher's eyes widen in alarm on top of his vague look, so that he looked rather as if he had been dosed with water while snoozing in class. He knows me too well, she thought, but I won't blow up on this high and mighty… _snob_! She's as bad as that prissy girl Lisa in _Millie and the Fight for Love_!

"Actually, it was quite a bit different from what you might think," Millie said calmly with a cool smirk to rival Gin's on her face. "I'm afraid it's too long a tale to tell, however, and I must be off. I have an appointment to keep."

"Of course," said Gin. "Some other time then?"

"I suppose," said Millie. "Until then, good day."

Millie swept away feeling Gin's cool gaze on her back, as she hurried away down the hallway. She could hear Christopher coughing to hide his laughter.

* * *

At the far end of the hallway and out of sight of Christopher and Gin, Henrietta and Elizabeth were hiding in a doorway. They both jumped out at Millie as she strode by. "What are you doing?" yelled Millie, as they both led her with their arms threaded through hers out of a side door and into the gardens.

"It's a lovely day for a stroll. Don't you think so, Millie?" asked Henrietta.

"I suppose so, but where are we going?" Millie asked. She was a little alarmed by the grins on her friends' faces.

"Oh, it's just time for one unmarried woman of your age and one married one to give you some advice, dearie," said Elizabeth with a smirk.

As Millie protested, Henrietta and Elizabeth sat her down on a stone bench in a garden surrounded by high hedges. "First off," said Henrietta, "what do you think of when you think of Christopher?"

Millie found a lot of unflattering terms came to mind, such as arrogant and overconfident, but then words like funny and caring and handsome surfaced. "He's the first boy I really knew," she explained. "We've known each other so long that I just think of him as him really."

"And you accept his faults?" asked Elizabeth anxiously.

"When there are so many," Millie said laughingly, "you have to accept something otherwise there would be nothing to like."

Henrietta grinned and said, "Well, that's that then. Let's go, Elizabeth."

"What were those questions for?" Millie asked suspiciously.

"Sorry, Millie," said Henrietta. "We promised ol' Gabriel that we would help Flavian teach some of the younger, rowdier children." They vanished before Millie could shout at them to tell her the truth.

* * *

"Sometimes, I think you're the only one around here who doesn't make me feel like an idiot, Proudfoot," Millie told her white cat. The feline was sprawled across her bed yawning, while Millie prepared for supper. It was to be Elizabeth and Antonio's last evening in England before they would be off to the Casa Montana in Caprona.

Millie smoothed her red gown and frowned at her reflection in the mirror. "I don't care much for appearances, Proudfoot," she sighed, "but I do not look anywhere near as pretty as Gin Leiko. Can you imagine her children with Christopher? They would be blindingly gorgeous!"

Proudfoot mewed and arched her back. "I know I should stop comparing myself to her," Millie said with a frown, "but it's hard not to when I'm such a plain little thing and those two are more beautiful than anyone has the right to be!"

A knock sounded at her door. Millie opened it and peered out at the usual tall dark figure that had always waited for her to come down to dinner with him until Gin had arrived. "What are you doing here?" Millie asked. "What about – "

"Gin's father has arrived, so she is already downstairs with him," Christopher said. "Now, who were you talking to in there? Don't tell me you have smuggled in some strapping warrior from another world and have been hiding him in your wardrobe."

"Strapping warrior?" Millie repeated. "Hardly. I was just talking to Proudfoot."

Christopher nodded politely at the cat on the bed, as if this were something he saw everyday, and said, "You have such a nice cat. Why did I ever get Throgmorten?"

"Besides the fact that your horrible uncle was having you steal a cat for parts, Throgmorten and you deserved each other," Millie said, as Christopher threaded his arm through hers and led the way down the stairs.

"At least I do not tear bits off of people," said Christopher.

"That is wonderful to hear," said Millie.

When they entered the drawing room, Millie found that her best friends were all grinning at her like they knew a wonderful secret. Jason, Conrad, Henrietta, and Bernard were in one corner whispering, while Bernard chewed on the end of a pencil and Henrietta cleaned her spectacles, and Antonio and Elizabeth were in another corner giving each other knowing, loving glances.

Millie felt four more pairs of eyes on her and tried to give the impression that she had not noticed. Gin Leiko apparently looked quite like her father in that he too was cool and brown-eyed. He was wearing a suit that looked just as natural on him as Gin looked in gowns of petticoats and lace.

Beside the two guests, there were Miranda and Cosimo Chant. Miranda looked a bit stricken at the fact that Millie was with Christopher, and Cosimo looked surprised as if something had gone against his horoscopes.

Well good, thought Millie. They should know better than to think that Christopher's going to wait on that woman all the time.

As they sat next to the four other young enchanters in the one corner, Henrietta winked quite obviously across the room at Elizabeth. What is going on? Millie wondered with alarm.


	3. Hints

**With This Ring**

_By: ChocolateEclar_

Disclaimer: I do not pretend to own Chrestomanci or the Related Worlds. I only own the random children that appear to mess up things every once in a while. Everything else but the plot is the property of Diana Wynne Jones.

**Review Responses:**

**To Demonprincess81, Moonlight at Midnight, Caralynne, Lulu, and mystery184:** You all seem to be as crazy about Millie/Christopher-ness as I am. Some more romance between the two should be coming up soon…

**To Rowana S:** As before, you have some very interesting advice for how to make this sound more authentic. I'm much obliged. I was wondering though, how did people start yelling "Sugar?" These expressions always surprise me. I will be using that and the other swearing hints and vocabulary in the future, and when I have time, I will edit the previous chapters accordingly. Thanks a bunch for all the help. Of course I don't take offense to it. By all means, keep "fussing" if you want.

**To Artemis Obscure:** I would call _myself_ a fanatic at least. You might call it something different though. I would also call it fangirly. Anyway, as you know, Florida was awesome. Thanks a bunch. Chapter four will probably be to you by the time you read this.

**To Lovely Acid:** Here's the next chapter, so there'll be no need to kick anyone's ass. Thanks for reviewing.

**To Sir Miles:** Of course that isn't too wordy. I love vocabulary (when I'm not being forced to learn it in school). Thanks for the review.

**A/N: This chapter brings up an interesting point DWJ said once. Here's a point from her website about Millie: "Of course she has grown up a bit in the twenty-five years in between THE LIVES OF CHRISTOPHER CHANT and CHARMED LIFE - and you must remember that in the more old-fashioned ways of Chrestomanci's world, ladies were supposed to be rather quiet, so the poor girl learned to be quiet."**

**That made me think a bit about how Millie changes, so I made a note in this chapter about how Millie is a bit more subdued than she was as the Goddess, but still able to be herself around Christopher and how she is sort of viewed as a feminist by Gin, which you would think would be fine by Gin, who we'll see is rather independent herself, but Gin is actually more towards things not being equal, but favoring women rather than men altogether. Just thought I'd bring it up.**

**

* * *

**

_**Chapter Three: Hints**_

Millie felt rather as if the four pairs of eyes stayed on her the entire dinner. Gabriel was at the head at one end of the table, while Christopher was at the other with Gin at his left and Millie at his right. Millie would have gladly sat far away from Gin rather than across from her, but Christopher had grandly pulled out the chair for her with that attitude that had gotten him in trouble for being too overly dramatic as a servant in Stallery Mansion.

Christopher proposed a toast to Elizabeth and Antonio with the same grand air about him. He seemed to be in an especially good mood to Millie; something that had not occurred since Gin Leiko had arrived. Millie could not place the reason though. She had thought that the arrival of his future father-in-law would have put Christopher in his most biting, sarcastic mood.

"Any plans for the future?" Mr. Jiro Leiko asked the newlyweds politely.

I can see where Gin received her mannerisms at least, Millie thought wryly.

"Oh, well, we're going to live at the Casa Montana with Antonio's family," Elizabeth said. Millie did not think her smile could have gotten any wider.

"Ah, yes, the famous spell-house in Caprona," said Jiro Leiko. "I personally prefer to get spells shipped to me from the Petrocchis, but I'm sure the Montanas are quite good as well."

There was a silence in which Millie tried to remember what she had been taught at school in her World Magic class two years before. Something about the two famous Italian families hating each other, Millie suspected.

Elizabeth put a hand on Antonio's arm, as her husband said simply, "We do not associate with the Petrocchis."

"What a pity," said Gin. "I love their skin moisturizing spells."

"I hadn't thought the Petrocchis were ones to ship spells so far east," said Antonio. "The Montanas are known for that at least. We sent a protective spell to your emperor for the birth of your princess overnight."

"I did not know that," said Gin. "Perhaps you can send me a list of the spells you offer when you return to Caprona."

Antonio hated to get into conflicts and was very thin and worried for a man so young, but Millie would not have put it past him for being sarcastic to Gin. Instead, he had replied decently enough. He was a sort of businessman after all, she supposed, and he seemed to have sold his products wonderfully.

She had no doubt that the tall dark-haired figure at her left would have said something scathing if it had been him. She would have done the same, or rather, the old Goddess would have. Finishing school had almost wiped some of that spirit out of her, but she found Christopher could always bring it out again, particularly when he was being especially rude.

She must have been daydreaming about being the Living Asheth again long enough for Christopher to have to lean over and whisper in her ear, "And you say I look vague?"

Startled, Millie jerked. She glared at Christopher and muttered back, "You most certainly do, and not just when you're daydreaming."

"And what was this fascinating dream about?" Christopher asked with a smile. It was brilliant, Millie noticed, but not as beautiful as that special smile he had given her at Elizabeth's wedding.

"Being the Living Asheth," Millie said.

"Ah, you don't miss it, I suppose," Christopher said. He glanced sideways at Gin, who seemed to think it very improper for him to be whispering to Millie and not his actual fiancée, if her frown was any indication. He ignored her and waited for Millie's answer.

"It was nice when I was little," admitted Millie, "but once I got old enough, most of the priestesses stopped playing games with me. It was terribly boring."

"I'm glad I could help," said Christopher with the edges of that smile on his mouth.

Millie found there was nothing she could say to that, so she picked at her mashed potatoes and gravy. Christopher became engaged in conversation with his future father-in-law. Millie heard bits of "…miss sushi… Have you ever tried…" to which Christopher replied that the food did not agree with him. Millie loosely remembered Christopher telling her about the mermaids the Wraith had killed on Series Five before her attention was turned back to her picked-over meal. Guiltily, she forced down some mashed potatoes. If there was one thing about Series Twelve that she liked, besides her friends and the _Millie_ books, it was the food.

"How exactly does this magic program here at Chrestomanci Castle work?" Jiro Leiko calmly asked Flavian Temple over his wine glass.

"I teach the younger enchanters," explained Flavian. "The elder seven were once my students but now are part-time teachers for the children and are also taught by Gabriel de Witt himself." Millie knew as well as everyone that, like so many of the other castle staff, when Christopher's uncle had taken away their magic it had been difficult for them to adjust. Flavian had done well though. He could still teach even if he had to have "the elder seven" demonstrate the spells if need be.

"Millie and Christopher were the first students here," explained Henrietta suddenly with a smile. "They've known each other since they were children."

"They're on about the same level of magic as well, even though Christopher is a nine-lived enchanter," added Conrad. "Millie is extremely clever." Elizabeth smiled approvingly at him.

"Yes, no one can compete with those two," added Bernard with a wink at Elizabeth.

What are they doing? Millie wondered. It sounds like they are trying to impress Mr. Leiko with Christopher and I, but why both of us?

"I was surprised myself with your engagement to Christopher actually, Gin dear," said Elizabeth. "I would have thought that Millie and Christopher would have married."

Millie froze with a fork poised halfway to her mouth with a carrot hooked on its tines. She heard Christopher cough loudly, but she dared not look at him.

"From what I've observed, I would not call them a very good match. Miss Millie seems more of a housekeeper type to me, who would want a husband to take care of everything but the house and children," said Gin coolly. "Isn't that right, Miss Millie?"

"Oh," said Millie, while quickly setting down her fork. She struggled to find the proper reply to Gin's words, but her strict etiquette teacher's lessons seemed to not apply to what response she should give Gin. You could not say "How nice" or "Why thank you" to something like that after all when it stung in so many ways.

Instead, Millie found herself giving Gin a very severe expression and saying, "If you are implying that all I want in life is a quaint little life with seven or eight children and a husband to look after me, Miss Gin, then you would be mistaken. I prefer something a bit more equal."

She was surprised at herself, and apparently Gin was as well. Henrietta and Elizabeth gave each other approving grins across the table. Millie risked a glance at Christopher to find him smiling slightly with an otherwise vague expression on his face.

"Equality," repeated Gin after a moment. "Feministic, are we?"

"No," said Millie with a bitter smile. "It's my Series Ten-mentality shining through I suppose."

There was a silence that was eventually broken by Flavian nervously continuing his explanation of the teaching at the castle. Millie did not dare look at anyone as she returned to her food. I said too much as always, she thought. At school, I would be punished for sure. Equality. It seems like a foreign subject here sometimes. In Series Ten, I was worshipped because I represented a goddess, not a god… But here, it seems like only a few understand how I feel. Could I give all this up just because this society is unfair to women?

Could I let Christopher marry this horrible woman? she added with surprise.

* * *

"What was all that about at supper?" Millie asked, as Henrietta and her were walking back to their respective rooms.

"Millie, you twit," said Henrietta, "can't you take a hint?"

"What do you mean?"

"In the words of Elizabeth, you're perfect for each other!" Henrietta yelled, as she smacked her forehead. "At least _he_ knows what he feels!" They came to her room then. Henrietta went inside and quickly shut the door.

"Henrietta!" shouted Millie. "Henrietta, what are going you on about?"

"Nitwit," Henrietta called through the door. "Use that head of yours, Millie."

"What – " began Millie.

"I will say nothing more," stated Henrietta with a stern, motherly tone. Millie felt the great blanket of a spell that fell around the room keeping her from entering and Henrietta from hearing her or vice versa. She snorted in a particularly unladylike way because no one was around and stomped down the hallway. She quieted and straightened up when Jiro Leiko passed and muttered a polite, "Sir."

"_Miss Millie_," said Jiro with a final sort of tone and a glare.

* * *

"I am calling off the marriage officially," said Christopher out in the gardens. His usual overdramatic flourish was gone and replaced with a very serious, unyielding face that Millie still found remarkably handsome. That is, until she reminded herself that she was so very plain herself that even someone remotely good-looking would probably look handsome to her.

Besides, I shouldn't be listening to this, she thought, as she tried to get comfortable in her position hidden behind the garden bushes. She had needed a walk after her confusing conversation with Henrietta and had seen Christopher and Gin together. Her first instinct had been to turn around, but a stronger one had forced her to sneak closer so that she could hear what they were talking about.

What if a gardener sees me and shouts? she thought. I should be okay as long as I don't pick a flower I suppose.

Gin was using her most _delicate-pained-and-perfect_ look. She held her handbag (Who needs a handbag in a place that you're living in? demanded Millie silently) in two tight, little fists as she stared with big, teary eyes at Christopher.

"I am certain that you will find someone else," said Christopher, and added thoughtfully, "if that father of yours doesn't arrange another marriage within the hour."

"That explains nothing," sobbed Gin. Millie rather thought this was a bit much. She loved sap-filled stories, but she could not understand the point of Gin's tears. I mean, I would be happy to get out of a forced marriage! she thought.

"I am sorry," Christopher said, "and I do generally like you, but not that way at all."

Now, that was an utter lie, Christopher, thought Millie. She knew his various expressions, which only really consisted of vague, bored, piqued, and amused more often than not (leaning heavily on vague), and he had never shown any type of enjoyment around Gin.

"It's a pity that I swiped that ring off your dresser then," said Gin angrily. Her tears had dried as if by magic, which Millie supposed was true about their disappearance just as much as their appearance in the first place.

"I thought you had," said Christopher cheerfully. "But you should know that I don't have these last few lives left by being as careless as _that_."

Millie found that any thoughts of sneaking away were long gone, as Gin said, "Now _that_ is a pity. I was hoping you were as dense as you look."

Christopher may look vague, Millie thought, but never dense! She was curious yet wary now, while her legs had cramped up from kneeling for so long in her finest lace-trimmed red gown and petticoats straining to look through the hedges. She longed to demand what was going on, but there was the tiniest instinct in her that said to remain still.

Glancing briefly at where Millie's eyes were hard to distinguish as they peered through the bushes, Christopher said, "You do threaten a lot when you don't get your way, now don't you?" He paused and continued without waiting for an answer, "Now, who is it that you are getting a life from a nine-lived enchanter for?"

Millie had stiffened when Christopher's eyes had hovered over where she hid, but now she let out a long breath. He had seen her, for that she was certain, which meant he would probably not be happy with her later for spying, and yet she felt good being there. It's that instinct again, she thought.

"Now that would be telling, Christopher," said Gin. It would have sounded playful to anyone who had not heard the beginning of the conversation. "Besides, just because I don't have that ring, doesn't mean I still don't have you."

"Oh really?" said Christopher with a slight hint of his usual vagueness. "My glowing signature certainly can't be used against me, so what then?"

"I've dug my claws quite nicely into that little friend of yours," said Gin. "She doesn't know it, but she gave me just enough information to find out who she was back in her little Series Ten."

Millie bit her lip and felt her chest constrict painfully. There has been something off with me, she realized. But I figured it had more to do with the thought of Christopher getting betrothed than something really wrong…

"As long as her name is unprotected, I have a hold on her," said Gin grandly. "And I know you don't want me to abuse that."

"My name? But I'm just Millie!" Millie almost blurted out. She did not even have a proper last name. It caused all sorts of problems at school. Teachers tended to just end up calling her Miss Millie, but the headmistress was always looking at her like it was a tragedy to have no family name.

Millie rather thought now that it was a good thing she did not have a last name to tie her to before then. "There is strong magic tied to a person's name," she remembered Christopher telling her once when he was explaining how he set up his signatures against that. "If you have someone's signature, or even just their name, you can use that to put hexes and other foul things on the person."

But Millie isn't what I was born with, she realized, so what name does she have that has power over me?

Christopher looked, Millie thought when she searched his face for his reaction, like he had just had a terrible blow to his ego. He was rarely bested at anything by anyone of his age bracket, so to have Gin plan better than him was a great shock. He was humble when Jason managed to beat him in something like cricket or minor spells, but Christopher was the king of taking on larger situations in top form.

At the moment, Christopher seemed to be fighting hard to blanket his real emotions with his vaguest look. He was pale and seemed resolute upon some inner decision that caused him to look straight ahead at Gin rather than at the hedge.

Millie felt that instinct creeping up on her again. _Run, run!_ it said, but she realized she could not move, or rather, she could not leave Christopher.

"She was a poor street urchin's daughter," Gin was continuing. "His wife died in childbirth, and he had no way of caring for the infant. So when the Asheth priestesses came to his home to say that Asheth had ordained that his daughter would probably be their living symbol and found the silly little birthmark on her foot, well, that was settled for her then.

"The man had never actually given little Millie a name," Gin went on to say, "One of the priestesses told my contact in that world _that_ easily enough. Gossipy fool."

Horrible Mother Anstey I bet, Millie thought hazily.

"But then I thought about the first name little Millie must have been called," said Gin nastily. "Goddess. And that is where my power is over her."

Millie did not find that particularly wise of Gin. The title of Goddess was probably just as tied to Asheth as the title the Living Asheth, and Asheth had been known for being a vicious goddess.

"You are lying," said Christopher casually, although Millie could see the sweat on the back of his neck in the last rays of sunlight before dusk.

"You really think so?" Gin said. Millie's instincts were pounding for her now to flee, and it seemed that Christopher had the same plan of action for her. She saw the flick of his wrist behind his back, and then she found herself tumbling down, down a hill into a meadowland surrounded in trees.

Above her head, an apple tree was laying its branches in a canopy, and to her right lay a bumbling spring. She seemed to be at the base of a tree and tangled in its roots with a broken archway nearby.

"Argh!" she shouted, as she struggled to stand with the weight from her petticoats. "Why do woman here have to wear such _torture_ _devices_?" She slipped and almost fell into the spring before she was able to right herself. She stepped up to the stone arch and the piece of it lying on the ground. She recognized the place. Christopher had described it to her after Gabriel had shown him. She had used it to run away to Series Seven when her first school had been horrible.

"You expect me to run away to another world, Christopher?" she asked aloud. "But what about you and Henrietta and Jason and Bernard and Conrad? I suppose they don't have a name curse on them, at least not yet anyway, but this isn't fair, you idiot! How can I be expected to leave you to this? I won't even get to say goodbye to Elizabeth and Antonio before they go off to Italy!" Her voice was muffled by the magic in the garden. She felt like screaming.

She probably would have marched back to Christopher and told him not to be a prat, but her mind was made up for her when Christopher appeared himself. "Stop yelling like that, Millie," he said crossly. "She'll know I'm not really there before long, so you have to hurry."

"I'm not leaving," Millie hissed.

"Oh yes, you are," Christopher shot back. "And you're going to take this with you to silence you and reassure you that I'm not going to get my last lives blown away." He anxiously held something in his hand and was about to give it to her but decided to activate the gateway with a flick of his hand first. The space between the archway heated up and misted, so that all that could be seen was a hazy, milky white area.

Millie was about to protest again, when Christopher muttered, "I might as well do this properly since we have about a minute before she realizes." He then went down on one knee, and Millie felt her chest constrict for the second time that day.

"I'm not going to expect an answer until I go out and find you, sort of like when you ran away I suppose, but I am about to ask you anyway," Christopher said. He had that beautiful smile on his face even though he looked tense and unsure of himself just then. "Will you forgive this wretch for what he's about to do and marry him, Millie?"

And before Millie could even wrap her mind around the question and try to come up with some kind of response other than "Uh," Christopher had slipped a gold ring on her finger, a familiar one that she had seen around his neck so many times, and pushed her back into the archway so that once again she was tumbling down, down, but with Christopher's anxious face peering at her for a moment this time. Then she hit sand and went tumbling down once more.

* * *

**A/N: Where do you suppose Christopher has sent Millie?**


	4. The Trouble with Love and Ninelived En

**With This Ring**

_By: ChocolateEclar_

Disclaimer: I do not pretend to own Chrestomanci or the Related Worlds. I only own the random children that appear to mess up things every once in a while. Everything else but the plot is the property of Diana Wynne Jones.

**Review Responses:**

**To Moonlight at Midnight:** That's a _very_ safe thing to say. Thanks again for the review!

**To Demonprincess81 and mystery184:** Why, of course he proposed. Thanks for reviewing!

**To LovelyAcid:** Thanks a bunch. I'm pleased to hear you reread my chapters, as I have reread Diana Wynne Jones' books themselves several billion times.

**To Rowana S:** I will use "Drat" then. Thanks for the help. I loved the last chapter, so I'm glad you liked it as well.

**To Sir Miles:** Of course I want the books to go on forever. That's part of the reason I love fanfiction.

**To Caralynne:**A pillow? C'mon, we can do better than that. Have this large rock instead. Oh yeah, and I love little details like how Christopher won't eat fish and such. I also love to see when people pick up on it.

**To alyce:** I think this story still has quite a bit left to be told. I don't know for sure, though, as I don't plan too far ahead. It keeps me in suspense as much as you all.

**To Lulu and everyone who guessed where Millie has been sent:** You all are correct one way or another, as Millie will be going to both places that were guessed in this chapter.

_**Chapter Four: The Trouble with Love (and Nine-lived Enchanters)**_

"Yes!" blurted out Millie, as she rolled down the dune and got sand in her mouth in the process. "_Uft!_ I want to marry you, Christopher!" she yelled as she landed at the base of the dune with one final painful bounce.

She lay there for a moment wondering why life was so cruel to her before she lifted up her left hand and stared at the gold band glinting on her ring finger. "Oh dear," she sighed. It looked quite ordinary as plain gold rings went, but the thought that she had one of Christopher's lives on her finger made her feel a bit self-conscious and wary.

"You trust me with this, Christopher?" she wondered aloud. She had to admit, it was a great honor (which was even greater than her being the Living Asheth, on the account of that Asheth still wanted a sacrifice when all was said and done. Christopher, on the other hand was just… Christopher.

She finally stood up and looked around at her surroundings. There was a distant city across the sand. It had domed buildings surrounded in mud-colored walls and a tall structure in the center that was extremely well known to her.

"_The Temple?_" she shrieked.

She trudged across the sand, up and down sand dunes on the way, and straight towards the city and its brightly colored umbrellas that the merchants (one of which was her father apparently, if Gin had told the truth, or if he were still alive at all that is) sat under to sell their goods. Most importantly, it was where her childhood home stood.

She made herself invisible as soon as she was within a few minutes from the wall. She did not want to be seen in her outlandish, sandy red gown. She hurried past the merchant stalls and corner shrines and felt a panic settle over her. She was not used to the market. She had only gone into it on that one day every year in which the Living Asheth emerges in all her finery and now she felt terribly isolated and out of place among her old worshippers.

I wonder who the new Living Asheth is, she thought with a sigh. I hope she has the wits to get out and start a new life when she's too old.

When she reached the Temple of Asheth, she slid invisibly through the wall just as Christopher had used to do, and stepped into the courtyard of cats. She became visible as soon as she was sure no one was around and stopped for a moment to pet the temple cats. She smiled and moved on. She had not bothered to become invisible again. Most people in the temple had witch-sight anyway.

She felt rather dumb when she realized, as she stepped into her old room, that she could have just transformed her clothes into something more suitable for the world. She was about to do so when a figure appeared before her in the dark room.

"Who are you?" demanded a child's voice. Millie found herself staring at her replacement. The girl was rather tiny and probably only six years old. She looked like she was going to be attractive when she grew up by the look of her heart-shaped face and beautiful coffee-colored eyes. Her hair was dark and plaited and she wore the same type of sleeveless, rust-brown robe with bangles on her wrists and ankles that Millie had worn in her place.

"I'm a previous Living Asheth," Millie said truthfully. At the girl's doubting face, she took off one painful high-heeled shoe and turned her heel so that the girl could see the purple birthmark on the sole of her foot.

The girl grinned and said, "I've always wondered what happens when I grow up!" She frowned at Millie's soiled dress though. "But what are you wearing?"

Millie sighed and thoughtfully transformed her dirty red gown into a clean brown robe just like the little girl's. The child smiled approvingly and said, "I wish I could do that."

"I'm sure you will soon enough," said Millie wistfully. "Now, where is Mother Proudfoot?"

"Oh, I'll go call her if you want," said the girl.

"Please," said Millie. She felt drained suddenly. She sat down on a pile of pillows, while she waited and smiled as a ginger cat immediately entered the room and sat on her lap. "You were probably just a kitten when I left by the looks of you," she said, "so it must be some feline ability to sense when people feel troubled. I wonder if you're a descendent of Bethi and horrible Throgmorten."

"Asheth Daughter!" exclaimed Mother Proudfoot when she entered the room. She wrapped her skinny arms around Millie and held her to her bosom.

"Mother Proudfoot," sniffed Millie. If there was anyone she missed from Series Ten, it was the tall, old priestess. She seemed to have gained a few more creases at the corners of her eyes and mouth, but otherwise, Millie felt rather as if she had never left the comfort of Mother Proudfoot's embrace in the years she had been in Series Twelve.

There was the gold ring on her finger reminding her of the truth though. She pulled away and said, "I need help, Mother Proudfoot."

The elderly priestess smiled thinly and said, "That was what I thought. Otherwise, I don't think a former Living Asheth would dare enter the Temple ever again. Now, what is the trouble, child?"

Millie felt like a little girl again as she explained, "There's this horrible enchantress trying to steal Christopher's lives, that is, the next Chrestomanci's lives. She said she has some kind of hold over my name, so to solve two problems in his mind, he gave me this ring, which has one of his lives attached to it, and threw me back here!"

She had deliberately left out the part about Christopher asking her to marry him. That fact was something to ponder about later.

Mother Proudfoot looked thoughtful as she said, "What of de Witt? Can't he be of service in this? It is his castle and world."

"I'm not sure," Millie admitted. "Christopher is always on bad terms with him though, so it could be Christopher's being petty and trying to stop Gin on his own… or this could all be going on under Gabriel's nose and it's not Christopher's doing at all." She sighed and smiled sadly at Mother Proudfoot. "I'm not confident in any of my options," she whispered.

"There is one thing certain at least; you need to get off of this world before the other priestesses awaken at dusk in several hours," Mother Proudfoot insisted, as the little girl returned to the room with her bracelets banging together as she walked. She stared with confusion between her predecessor and the old priestess.

"Where can I go? I want to return to Christo – Chrestomanci Castle," Millie insisted.

"Hush, child, or the other priestesses will hear you," said Mother Proudfoot. "Now, I believe it would be best if you were to go to a world in Series Five."

"Why Series Five?" Millie asked.

"Aside from Series Eleven, it would be a world that this enchantress would probably least expect you to be in," said Mother Proudfoot. "Remain right here, while I get a suitable book for the spell I am about to perform."

While they waited, the little girl tugged at Millie's robe and asked, "Who gave you that ring? Was it someone special?"

Millie smiled and said, "Yes, I suppose he is."

"Was it your birthday?" the tiny Living Asheth wondered. "Mother Alistan gave me a turquoise bracelet for my last one."

Millie faltered for a moment with her mouth hanging open before she realized what she was doing and replied, "It was a very special… _present_ you give to someone you, well, _love_…w-when you want to be with them… well, forever…" She stopped and thought how much Christopher himself would have laughed at her response and the look on the little girl's face.

"Oh," she said. "You mean it's a betrothal vow? I heard Mother Anstey talking about Mother Alistan running away from the temple with a young man after he made a betrothal vow to her."

Nodding mutely, Millie smiled and said nothing until the priestess returned.

When Mother Proudfoot reentered, Millie peered over her shoulder at the page in a dusty tome that the priestess held open. Ironic, Millie thought about the chosen spell.

"Shouldn't I do the spell to myself?" she asked aloud though.

"Not this one," Mother Proudfoot said, as she studied the incantation. "Now, stand in the center of the room."

Mother Proudfoot took a vile of bluish liquid from her sash and told the little Living Asheth to pour it in a circle around Millie, while the priestess made sweeping motions with her hands.

Millie felt a tingle in her toes and then the skin began to change to gain a silver hue. Something began to grow from her toes as Millie watched everything from her toes to her waist turn silvery and then scale-covered. The rest of her took on a greenish shade and her hair became an emerald green seaweed-like substance.

She saw the girl's eyes widen in amazement, as Millie's feet transformed into a long green fishtail. Millie lost her balance and tumbled to the ground with a wet _splat!_ as the process completed with a burning sensation in her lungs.

"You can now breathe underwater," explained Mother Proudfoot. "How do you feel?"

* * *

The following day, after a night of sleeping on the pillows beside the young Living Asheth, who had to get up every few hours to rewet the cloth that was keeping Millie's scales moist, Millie levitated after Mother Proudfoot and the girl. It was just before dawn so no one was awake but them. The silence made Millie nervous as they entered a shadowed area under a tree with a pentagram outlined in stone beneath it. She set herself down in the center. 

"Be careful, Millie," said the girl with a bright smile.

"I will," answered Millie. She turned to the other person before her and said, "I am ready, Mother Proudfoot."

"Good, stay safe, child," said the priestess. "And escape to another world if you must, but do not return home until shelter is certain there."

"Yes, Mother Proudfoot," said Millie. She felt a rush of wind and took one last look at the tiny Living Asheth. She will be fine, Millie decided, right before the wind began to howl and a bright flash of light sent her flying headfirst into water.

* * *

"It seems strange that it's been only an hour since I left Series Ten," sighed Millie, as she explored a coral reef cautiously. Her green tail flopped clumsily in the water, as she tried to get used to constantly moving it to stay afloat. She peered inside a crevice in the pinkish coral and saw a pair of eyes staring back at her. She quickly swam backwards and went to look elsewhere.

Millie was tired of swimming after another half hour and wondered how fish did it all day long. She had made a decision though; she was going back to the castle. Apparently however, Christopher and Mother Proudfoot had thought of that, as it was both impossible to gain legs again and to return to Series Twelve.

First, she struggled onto the beach and then fought in vain to return her legs to normal. When she was fed up, she tried to get to the Place Between instead and clambered over the dangerous rocks, dragging her fin behind her. She searched through the icy rain for Series Twelve and found something firmly shoving her back. She almost tumbled off back into Series Five, but she twisted her tail around a rock and fought against the barrier.

Everything about it felt to her like Christopher, and she shouted and listened to her words echo across the mists. "Christopher!" she called. "Let me in, you fool! Christopher!" She knew he could not hear her though.

Her eyes were getting heavy, and she longed for the warm waters of Series Five. She let the barrier push her back into Series Five, where she splashed into the water and settled in weeds nearby the coral to sleep.

* * *

Millie awoke to being gently lifted from the water and onto the beach. She blearily opened her eyes to see Christopher standing over her. She hurriedly sat up and was about to tell him what she thought of him blocking her from returning to the castle, when he lightly tapped her mouth with his right index finger. "Listen to me," he said. "Jason is giving me time to talk to you, but the castle is partly taken over already. Gin will realize that I don't have the life soon I suspect. She already knows you're gone. You need to stay moving. Don't stay on this world long. Only one of my lives is here. The other is sleeping in Gabriel's office. We've dealt with sieges on the castle before, but never from the inside, and that is causing us some trouble."

He removed his finger from her lips and reluctantly stood up. "Bernard is calling me. Something has happened to Jason."

"Christopher," Millie insisted. "If she thinks you have the ring, why can't I come back?"

Christopher was already walking away and getting smaller as he went. All he said was, "Being a mermaid suits you. Mermaids are too beautiful and wonderful for anyone with any sense of justice to dare to even think of killing them."

Then he was gone, and Millie awoke with a terrible start with a fish brushing her arm in the water. It quickly swam away, as a dark shadow fell over the water and a net swept through.

Millie pushed off from the floor and tried to swim away, but her tail got stuck in the net, and she was entangled fully as she tried to escape. She lashing out with a spell to force everything around her away, and the net released her.

A second net appeared, and she was hauled onto a fishing boat before she could fight back. This was not the best place to send me, Mother Proudfoot, Millie thought wildly.

She flopped on the deck and tried to use the same spell to free her again. By then, the sedative bound in the strands of the net had started to pierce her senses, and her spell dwindled harmlessly in her hands until it was nothing. She gave one last flop and lay still.

* * *

**A/N: I'm not as fond of this chapter as the last, but I still like my little replacement Living Asheth and the scene with Christopher and Millie. Please review!**


	5. Teaser

**With This Ring**

_By: ChocolateEclar_

Disclaimer: I do not pretend to own Chrestomanci or the Related Worlds. I only own the random children that appear to mess up things every once in a while. Everything else but the plot is the property of Diana Wynne Jones.

**A/N: Well, as my beta has been rather busy lately, I'm done with chapters 5 and 6, and it's been about a month since I last updated, I decided I might as well put up a little teaser from chapter 5 to hopefully satisfy any cravings you might have at the moment. Also, I'm pleased to see a lot of you like the new little Living Asheth. I like her too. I had been wondering for a while what Millie's successor would be like.**

**Review Responses:**

**To Demonprincess81: **Great, we all need more Christopher/Millie fics around here.

**To Alyce: **Who will the new Goddess grow up to be? I'm not quite sure to be honest, but she will be as successful as Millie in whatever she does. As for Christopher and Millie being in character, thanks a bunch. I'm glad to see I've found a pretty happy medium between who they were in _Conrad's Fate_ and them when they're older in most of the series.

**To skribe and catherine:** Thanks for reviewing! I hope you enjoy this.

**To Rowana S:** I certainly plan on bringing the little Living Asheth in again, but I haven't decided how yet. I have a little bit of an idea on how to use her in the Cat storyline of the series, but that would probably be another story, so we shall see.

**To Caralynne:** I'm glad you used the rock instead. It's much more fitting for Gin, especially considering what she's going to put everyone through later on.

**To Moonlight at Midnight:** I wrote that comment Christopher made about how "being a mermaid suits" Millie before I even wrote the last chapter. It stuck in my mind the entire time I was writing it until I actually put it in.

**To LovelyAcid:** Long reviews are fine. Millie actually still has on the sleeveless Series Ten outfit, but I think I forgot to say that. I meant to in any case. _(laughs) _Indeed, Christopher's parents have always annoyed me. If you didn't like how long it took me to update last time (which was really not terribly long) I wonder how you feel now after a month…

**To Lulu:** Actually, the snogging is coming up very, very, _very_ soon, so be happy. I sure am. I love writing those scenes. Hee. Feel free to slap Gin, though she will get punished either way.

**To susieQ:** Of course I'm going to update. I love this story.

**To Crystal Music:** To be honest, I wrote _Howl's Moving Castle_ fics long before I wrote this, but I had to do this eventually. I had to show Christopher some love after all. _(grins)_ The silver allergy will be important soon. It is Christopher's main weakness after all, and Gin knows it.

**_Chapter Five: World Travels_**

Millie backed away, and Henrietta stopped behind her. "Who is that?" Henrietta whispered.

"I – " began Millie before she froze. She snapped around and grabbed Henrietta's hand and tugged. "Run!" she hissed.

"W-What?" gasped Henrietta, as Millie dragged her behind.

For the second time that day, Millie found that there was something quite painful flying by her head. It was not a bullet though, but a very heavy rock that was being propelled at her by magic. She felt a blinding agony bloom at the back of her head. She heard Henrietta yell out a spell, and then Millie was unconscious for the second time that day.

* * *

"Millie," a voice insisted. "Millie, wake up." 

"Drat," grunted Millie.

"Wake up," hissed the same person. "We need to get away quickly."

Millie opened her eyes to see a man with brown skin, hazel eyes, and tightly curled pale brown hair hovering over her under a bleak stone ceiling. He was pressing a cloth to her forehead and wearing what look like an old green suit.

* * *

**A/N: What do you know, it's a good ol' canon character. I hope you all know who it is. _(grins) _The full chapter 5 will hopefully be up in a few days.**


	6. World Travels

**With This Ring**

_By: ChocolateEclar_

Disclaimer: I do not pretend to own Chrestomanci or the Related Worlds. I only own the random children that appear to mess up things every once in a while. Everything else but the plot is the property of Diana Wynne Jones.

**Review Responses (if you want my response to the last full chapter, then see the teaser):**

**To Rowana: **Here be the real thing. _(grins)_

**To Crystal Music: **I love Mordecai too, so of course he had to appear sometime.

**To skribe: **I think you can partly already tell what Gin wants, which is why she's going to be increasing her search for Millie.

**To LovelyAcid:** Oh joy, I seem to have warranted offensive nicknames. Wonderful. As I am an ex-nail biter, I think you'll survive though. As I said before, this chapter (and the next) have been done for a while, before even the Half-Blood Prince came out (which I loved even if my favorite character died), they've just been with my beta. I'd rather have a long period in between chapters than post a totally unedited chapter after all.

**A/N: Well, here finally is chapter five. Enjoy.**

_**Chapter Five: World Travels**_

"I never would have thought we'd find one over by the reef. I thought the last big hunt years ago had driven 'em out."

Millie tried to lift her head to see who was talking, but it seemed to be too heavy for her neck. Instead, she opened her eyes and peered through the bars of the cage at what she could see of her captors. They seemed to be two scruffy young men with blue jackets on. The one who had spoken before was tall and fair, while the other was short and dark.

The other spoke gruffly then, "Who cares as long as she brings in a hefty price."

Millie realized she was in bigger trouble that she had first thought. I can't end up like those other mermaids! she thought with despair. She tried to sit up and found that something was helping to strengthen her left hand. She saw the ring glinting and smiled. Christopher's lives were as strong as the real thing when used by someone, she supposed.

Her throat felt very dry and her scales smelled strangely. I need to get into the water or grow back legs! she reasoned urgently. She drew tentatively from the ring for a little extra power and concentrated on the fin sticking out from under her sleeveless outfit.

Her scales turned the normal pallor of her skin. She wrinkled her nose and squinted her eyes. The scales melded back to smooth skin. Her feet were difficult though. She had to picture them first in her mind and then the fins began to slowly reshape. She did not bother to return the rest of her skin to normal, but left it and her hair greenish.

As long as I have legs to escape with, I'm fine, she thought. But it was a bit more difficult than that. She tried to clamper to her feet, but it was like they had been asleep for a long time, and she stumbled. The two men turned to her simultaneously, and the short one muttered, "The mermaid has legs!"

"She's got magic, ye'fool," said the fair one. "We caught ourselves a merwitch."

An enchantress, thank you very much, thought Millie, but she did not waste time saying anything out loud. She looked at the bars and held her hands out to the sides at different angles. Smiling, she knew that this would have been when, as the Living Asheth, she would have grown multiple arms. Those days were gone though. She tossed her seaweed-like hair over her shoulder with a shrug of her shoulders. With that motion, the whole cage burst open and toppled over onto its side.

The two men gapped for a moment before running towards her. She squinted her eyes at them and both of them were tossed up and into a crate of fish. She did not give them a backwards glance as she strode over to the edge of the boat and concentrated on the World Edge. It appeared as the usual wet, rocky place, as she climbed up onto the rail surrounding the edge of the boat.

She wished she had looked back as a shotgun went off far to close to her for comfort. She pulled herself up onto a slippery rock, but she slipped and cried out when the rock nearby exploded as a bullet struck it. She felt a warm hand on her arm helping her up farther on the rocks.

When she was safely up and the gateway was shut behind her, she looked up expecting to see Christopher. Instead, it was Henrietta, pale and shaking. Millie realized she was trembling as well. She did not want to think about that bullet hitting her head. She did not have a life to spare even if she did have one on her finger.

"Are you all right?" Henrietta asked. She sat down on the cold stone and tried to breathe deeply.

Millie sat down beside her and placed a reassuring hand on the other girl's back. Henrietta had been known to have trouble breathing when overly stressed. "I'll be fine," Millie said soothingly. "What has happened in the castle?"

"Jason was hurt," Henrietta explained with a slight shiver. She drew her knees up and locked her arms around them. "Gin hit him with a curse. We're all basically holed up in Gabriel's office. It's horrible. Most of the staff is in there and the rest is watching the hallways for the bunch of Gin's group that got inside. The rest of her group were captured nicely by some of Jason's yard traps."

Millie did not think there was anything nice about being caught in any of Jason's traps, but she remained silent. Two years before she had been looking up through the branches of a tree and walking outside the castle when one of Jason's rattraps had ensnared her foot. His were not the typical rattraps by magic standards. They caved under you and then dropping a brick on you. Millie had screamed and gotten the brick off her foot. Then she had hobbled into the castle yelling for Jason to let the rats and her live in peace. She had broken her foot in two places.

After reminiscing for a moment, Millie asked, "What about the others?"

"Gabriel has been in contact with Parliament five times," explained Henrietta sullenly. "Bernard was trying to figure out how to get the curse off Jason when I left by sneaking into the library even though it could possibly have some of Gin's cronies hidden inside. Apparently, she'd been sneaking in people and hiding them around the castle as ordinary objects the whole time she was there.

"Christopher was holding up protection spells and taking instructions from Jason on how to reset his traps. He sent me to find you and tell you that Gin was sending people to look for you. He wanted me to go hide with you, but I only went to bring you back like I know you want me to do."

Standing up abruptly, Millie said, "Then we had better return now. I don't want any one else shooting at us." She first turned her hair and skin color back to normal though, as she could see that even stressed, Henrietta was about to laugh at her.

"It looked good," Henrietta reassured her with a grin.

* * *

Both girls scrambled farther up the rocks. Cold drizzle enveloped them, so that Millie wished she were wearing a fluffy winter coat instead of her thin sleeveless outfit from Series Ten. Henrietta was not much better off in her heavy skirts absorbing water. Millie did not pause though. That instinct had returned and was pulling at her against the force of the World Edge. She was about to peer into a valley and see if it was one of the Series Twelve's, but there was someone unfamiliar coming towards them from inside. 

Millie backed away, and Henrietta stopped behind her. "Who is that?" Henrietta whispered.

"I – " began Millie before she froze. She snapped around and grabbed Henrietta's hand and tugged. "Run!" she hissed.

"W-What?" gasped Henrietta, as Millie dragged her behind.

For the second time that day, Millie found that there was something quite painful flying by her head. It was not a bullet though, but a very heavy rock that was being propelled at her by magic. She felt a blinding agony bloom at the back of her head. She heard Henrietta yell out a spell, and then Millie was unconscious for the second time that day.

* * *

"Millie," a voice insisted. "Millie, wake up." 

"Drat," grunted Millie.

"Wake up," hissed the same person. "We need to get away quickly."

Millie opened her eyes to see a man with brown skin, hazel eyes, and tightly curled pale brown hair hovering over her under a bleak stone ceiling. He was pressing a cloth to her forehead and wearing what looked like an old green suit.

"Tacroy!" Millie shouted. "Mordecai, what are you doing here?"

"Christopher," explained Mordecai Roberts with a faint weary smile. "He wanted me to look after you both since I can't get into the castle myself to help them. Both him and Gabriel spent a good twenty minutes arguing about it actually. Gabriel wanted me to contact his people in other worlds in Series Twelve, and Christopher wanted me to assist you both. So I told them both calmly that I would do both. We're in Series Eight at the moment, but we need to get back to Series Twelve right away."

Millie could picture the tall skinny men, one old, one young, yelling at each other to see reason. "Where's Henrietta?" she asked.

"Over here," said Henrietta, as she appeared in the stone doorway. "Do you feel too terrible to run over those icy rocks again, Millie?" Henrietta asked. "I wouldn't be surprised if that knock about the head made you ill. I had such a horrible time carrying you over the rocks with magic before Mordecai arrived. I was afraid I'd do something foolish and drop you off down the rocks into a valley."

"What happened to the man who was attacking us?" queried Millie.

"He is not the only person who can throw stones at people," explained Henrietta. "I gave them all back to him at the same time."

Millie winced, as her own head ached. "Brilliant," she said, as she struggled to her feet. Mordecai took her elbow and helped her out of the door with Henrietta behind them. She seemed to have transformed her gown into a warm shirt and wool skirt. Millie did the same and felt her head pound slightly from concentrating too fiercely.

She looked back for a moment to see a stone farm with scorch marks. She expected to see a dragon, or at least garlic-smelling women, then, but there was no one there as she climbed into the World Edge with the other two travelers.

* * *

Millie secretly found World Twelve B to be a little frightening, though she would not admit it to Christopher until much later. There were too many cars and too much noise and too many people bustling about the streets. Henrietta seemed to be calmed by the crowds and walked confidently behind Mordecai. 

Millie remembered that as a girl put up on stage since infancy, Henrietta had grown up on the road performing shows in front of hundreds as little Hetty Hogan, the child acrobat, with her . Henrietta's real passion had been magic though. She had been secretly teaching herself when Millie snuck out of the castle with Christopher during the summer holidays when Millie was fifteen years old to watch the circus when it came to London.

Millie and Christopher had both noticed Henrietta using magic out behind the circus tents when they went across the back lot to try to not miss the train back to Bowbridge. There was a girl about fourteen with violently bright red hair fixing a rip in her costume with magic. She had a bloody lip and a grim expression as she worked. While Christopher was never one to remember people unless he found them important, Millie remembered her as the trapeze artist from the circus by her red hair, even without the white face paint and red lips.

Christopher smoothly complimented Henrietta on her magic, and Millie had asked her what had happened to her lip. "You saw the Strong Man, didn't you?" Henrietta had asked with some surprise on her face at the sight of them. When she received grim nods, she had continued, "He wasn't happy with my act this evening."

"But it was beautiful," Millie had insisted.

It had not taken much to convince Gabriel to take Henrietta into the castle as a student when she showed him her magical abilities, even when originally the plea to bring in a poor circus performer had made him tell Christopher, "The castle is not an orphanage."

Millie and Henrietta had been friends right from the moment Millie suggested that her and Christopher sneak Henrietta back to the castle with them. Both were girls unused to society and its expectations of women. Elizabeth arrived a few months later, and so the trio of girls was complete. Conrad had already been living in the castle for over a year, and Bernard was taken in a week after Elizabeth. Jason had been there longer than Christopher as the bootboy though.

Millie paused for a moment at a shop window and eyed a mannequin in what was labeled as the latest in wedding fashion. It was a strapless, gown with a transparent material over the thick skirts that began at the waist. There were shimmering beads lining the top of the dress and at the waist. Millie had a brief flash of her in that gown with a veil covering her face and coming up the aisle of the church in Bowbridge even though she found it rather improper to be baring her shoulders in such a way. Christopher was standing at the altar in a black suit and white silk cravat with that beautiful smile on his face just for her.

She was thrust out of her daydream when Henrietta called back at her from where she stood across the street with Mordecai. Quickly avoiding being struck by the cars, Millie followed, while fingering the ring on her finger with her thumb.

* * *

"Thirty-two Westmont Street," read Mordecai. "This should be the place." The three were standing in front of a shoddy building with faded gold numbers on the paint-chipped door. "Gabriel's contact in this world." 

Henrietta stepped up to the door first and briskly knocked. There was a long moment in which Millie wondered if anyone was going to answer and how strange she and Henrietta probably looked to the people of that world with their wool skirts and dripping hair from the dampness of the World Edge.

Finally, they heard movement inside and a terribly thin, middle-aged woman with short graying brown hair and pleasant blue eyes. "Who is it?" she asked politely.

"Mordecai Roberts, ma'am," said Mordecai with a slight bob of his head. "And Henrietta Hogan and Millie…" He trailed off as so many did before him. Millie was surprised she had not had a fake last name forced on her by then.

"Mother," called a voice from inside the house. "Who – " a young man probably no older than Christopher began to say as he appeared behind the woman in the doorway.

Millie did not really think the woman and her son fit their home. The woman was stately, while her son was handsome in a roguish sort of way.

"Oh, you have company," he said with a smile that matched the rogue in him that Millie had spotted easily enough.

"Yes, James," said the woman. "I have heard of you," she added to Mordecai, "but don't you have something for me first?"

"Of course," Mordecai said. He turned to Millie and said, "Show her Christopher's ring."

Millie reluctantly held out her hand, as the woman inspected it. This is a bit much, she thought. They could have thought up a proper code rather than making me display my wedding ring like this! Wait! I should have told him! Drat! When I saw Christopher in that dream-that-wasn't-really-a-dream, I should have told him I'd marry him! _Argh._

She almost grunted aloud, but refrained when the woman nodded and allowed them inside. "James, fix us up a pot of tea, dear," said the woman, as she led the way to the right, as soon as they were all in the low, dark foyer, and into a small sitting room. There were four rickety wooden chairs gathered around a small coffee table.One painting hung onto the faded blue wallpaper on a wall of a woman with dark hair and china doll features in a green dress.

"Now," said the woman once they all were seated and waiting for the tea, "my name is Victoria Sheldon. To begin, you are not the next Chrestomanci, dear, so why do you bear the ring in which his life resides? I saw you were a little uncomfortable showing it to me. I'm afraid Monsignor de Witt himself told me many signs to identify his other workers and that was one of them."

"Oh," Millie said. Think, she thought. What can I say that is believable but shan't embarrass me in front of them?

She decided to say something vague, but honest, and see if it kept anyone from asking any other questions. "He gave it to me to protect when the person who is attacking the castle tried to take it from him." That was sort of the truth, she supposed.

"He trusts you very greatly then, I see," said Mrs. Sheldon. Millie was glad to see James return and pour a cup of tea for his mother. It meant that those blue eyes and curious looks were off of her for the moment.

Nonetheless, she probably noticed what finger I have the ring on, she thought.

James stood behind his mother, as there were no more chairs, and smiled at Millie. Millie found she did not like that smile at all. It was not beautiful like Christopher's, but friendly in a way she was not quite familiar. It left her feeling… _unclean_, she decided. He was rather handsome though with his mother's blue eyes and white blonde hair that seemed to be sticking straight up with some kind of slick substance.

"What news do you have from Monsignor de Witt, Mr. Roberts?" asked Mrs. Sheldon.

Millie turned away from James and sat back farther in her chair, as Mordecai explained what was happening in the castle. Henrietta seemed to have noticed Millie's strange behavior and gave her a puzzled look. Millie tipped her head in James's direction and winced at Henrietta.

"Oh," mouthed Henrietta, as she studied the odd smirk on James's face. "_Goodness_," she muttered.

* * *

Millie found she had missed sleeping in a nice cozy bed after spending only one night without it. Only one day since I left, she thought. It seems so much longer. She woke up to the sounds of cars rushing by and people moving about on the first floor. It was earsplitting compared to the stillness of the castle. She sat up and made sure the ring was safely still on her finger, as she made her way to the wardrobe, where she had hung her wool skirt and white blouse. She had put on as many spells to protect and keep the ring on her finger as she knew, but still felt wary. She dared not remove it ever, even when she grabbed her clothes and went across the hallway to the bathroom to bathe. 

After her cold yet nice bath, compared to the damp World Edge anyway, Millie discovered the other occupants of the house in the sitting room eating around the coffee table. James immediately vacated his seat for her and gave her that smile that made her uneasy as she sat and thanked him. "There is no need though," she assured him. "I could have conjured my own chair."

He seemed to find this very funny, as he laughed heartily. "What is so amusing?" asked Henrietta coolly. She did not like James any more than Millie did.

"Oh nothing, little red," James assured her. Henrietta went almost as flush with anger as her hair. "I just had not expected such prim little ladies at our humble abode."

Three words: Swish _finishing_ school, Millie wanted to say angrily, but that would be ruder than the situation warranted.

Look at all the good it did me too! None of the things I learned there are useful for most situations! she thought.

James bowed mockingly behind his mother's back. He had gone to stand back there again for a reason unknown to Millie. Mrs. Sheldon seemed not to have noticed the glare Henrietta was sending her son, as she said, "Please take your fill of breakfast, Miss Millie. We have sausages and hash browns this morning."

Mordecai engaged Mrs. Sheldon in polite conversation on what Mrs. Sheldon did for Gabriel and more details on what was occurring in Chrestomanci Castle. Millie's ears picked out Christopher's name, and suddenly she was fully listening.

"Christopher is perfect for the position if you ask me," said Mordecai. "He will take everything in an entirely different manner than Gabriel (I can tell you that easily enough), but in a way, he is even more natural at the job than Gabriel."

I agree with that actually, Millie realized, as she piled up a small portion of eggs on her plate. He may complain about the traveling with no notice and not knowing where you are at first and Gabriel bearing down on him at the slightest mistake, but Christopher does genuinely like the work, I think, whereas Gabriel sees it as just a duty.

Millie half-listened to them talk about Christopher, as she tried to ignore the pair of blue eyes upon her and the smirk on the owner of said eyes'.

* * *

Peering out of her window at the busy street below with the trash piled along it, Millie was startled when a voice behind her said, "Not the view you're used to, I'm afraid, Miss Prim." 

As she tried not to frown at James, Millie said, "Well, when one comes from a different world, one must expect changes, _Mr. Sheldon_." She stressed the title slightly.

She found that the fact that she had no idea what his motives were for being in her room made her uncomfortable. Christopher, had never made her uncomfortable in her or his room. It probably had something to do with the fact that she had snuck into his room when she had first come to Series Twelve, she decided.

"Now, now, _Millie_," said James with that smirk she detested, "we're both working under the same snobby old man. The least we can do is play nice."

She wanted to ask him about his definition of "play nice," but the words froze in her chest. Instead, she managed to say in an even tone, "I would like some time to myself, Mr. Sheldon."

"By all means do," said James. "Oh," he said as an afterthought. "This came in the post for you." He tossed an envelope in her lap and left with that cheeky grin on his face still. Millie waited until his footsteps had faded, before shutting the door and flopping ungracefully on the rocky four-poster bed. She had not even looked at who it was from in her anxiety over whether James would actually leave or not. As an extra precaution, she put a strong privacy spell on the door so that it could not be opened and no one could hear her inside.

She flipped the letter right side up in her hands and examined the return address. The name was unfamiliar but it did not belong to the person that had that particular flourishing handwriting. She gasped in surprise. It said:

_Chris T. Mancey_

_12 Acastle Lane_

_London, England_

She thought it almost inane for Christopher to be secretly sending her messages under strange play on words and worlds, but she supposed it would not do for anyone to stop the message even if they could not open it.

She smiled slightly at what name he had used to address the letter to her. She had never much liked the full version of the name Millie, but he had been being clever again by giving her a last name that made it all right.

_Millicent Lee-Chant_

_32 Westmont Street_

_London, England_

She could feel the spells thickly on the envelope, but they came away easily for her because she was the only one meant to read it. Shaking, she tore open the envelope by sticking her thumbnail in the top corner and forcing it across the edge. She cautiously lifted a piece of parchment out of the envelope and immediately began to read.

_Millie,_

_This seemed to be the only way I could communicate the site of our next "meeting." If Gabriel discovers I'm sneaking out, he will knock off my last lives. I was lucky to talk to you last time. He actually was able to see my side in that and allow me to see you, but this time I don't have such luck. _

_I won't lie to you. We are not very lucky right now at all. Jason's curse (as I'm sure Henrietta told you about) is affecting him more and more every hour. He developed a fever this morning, but don't tell Henrietta. Elizabeth and Antonio are still here, as Gin struck right after you… _left_. They're singing works two ways. It calms people, as well as keeps up all the protection we have placed on what remains under our control in the castle, which is actually quite a bit now. At first, it seemed like everywhere we went, some previously bewitched man that had been a broom just an hour ago, would spring up on us and try to hex us to next Thursday. We have captured quite a bit of them though._

_Bernard is doing all right, though he is gnawing that pencil of his to bits. Conrad is fairly composed, as always, though I can tell that he's just doing that so _I_ don't lose myself._

_So how are you, I wonder? You probably noticed at this point that I really did not talk about myself much. I am as well as one can be without the one he cares about most._

_Meet me in the World Edge around Series One at midnight tonight._

_Yours truly,_

_**Christopher**_

Millie must have reread the letter six times before she realized that she had roughly four hours to midnight. She would need that, so, without bothering to change out of her clothes, she slipped into bed and slept.

Before she fell asleep however, she thought of nothing but what she would finally have the chance to tell Christopher.


	7. Chris T Mancey

**With This Ring**

_By: ChocolateEclar_

Disclaimer: I do not pretend to own Chrestomanci or the Related Worlds. I only own the random children that appear to mess up things every once in a while. Everything else but the plot is the property of Diana Wynne Jones.

**A/N: I know it's been over a year. Really. Thanks to everyone for being patient, including LovelyAcid, who sent me those fabulous drawings of Millie.**

_**Chapter Six: Chris T. Mancey**_

Millie awoke to moonlight making patterns on the wood floor of the room she was using. She could not understand for a moment why there was an envelope floating by her ear buzzing at her. A bleary look at the sender made her hurriedly vacate the bed however. She had enchanted the envelope to awaken her at promptly eleven o'clock, which would give her an hour to sneak out of the house and out into the World Edge. She just had to find the Series One valleys then.

She paused before she left to braid her hair. Pinning it up was useless in the World Edge. It just ended up falling down and getting into her eyes in damp hanks. She hoped her wool skirt and thick white blouse would be warm enough, otherwise she supposed she could charm it into even thicker fabric.

She turned the knob all the way and held it that way as she opened it, so that the latch would make no noise. Then she slowly returned the knob to its original position and snuck out into the hallway. She quickly did a spell to levitate her through the passageway and down the stairs into the dark foyer to avoid any creaks in the floorboards. Then, she carefully tapped the lock to undo it with magic and soundlessly opened the door. She slipped outside and gently shut and locked it behind her.

Now then, she thought, that wasn't too challenging. I hope it will be that simple to return undetected.

She concentrated on the World Edge and saw it appear on the other side of the street as its usual misty grayness. She made sure there were no terrible automobiles coming at her before crossing, but it seemed that the road was actually quite deserted for once.

She found that assassins and attackers wounding her in the World Edge or falling to her death off of a slippery rock were the least of her worries. She was terrified of what she was supposed to say to Christopher.

What does one say when she has not seen her fiancé (because that's what Christopher _is_ really) for a couple of horrible days, she thought, and she hasn't even had the chance to give him a proper answer to his proposal!

And now she is talking about herself in the third person! she thought with a weary sigh. She clambered up the last rock and onto solid stone. She peered around her, while trying to figure out which way to go to arrive at Series One.

She spotted a familiar misty image of a rock about a mile off that she rather thought was in the shape of a cat and headed in that direction. It was right between the valleys of Series Two and Three, so she just had to get a little farther than that.

She hoped she had judged the distance properly, as she used a spell to transport her. She landed on the edge of a rock and had to fall backwards or risk tumbling down. She did neither, as a strong hand grabbed her arm and held firm. She was afraid for a moment that it was one of Gin's men, but the grip was not painful.

She was helped down off the rock and made to sit on it instead, while her rescuer sat on a rock across from her. She calmed her heart, which had started to beat hard in her chest at the sight of that steep drop that seemed to lead to nowhere. Finally, she looked up at the man sitting in front of her keenly observing with his very dark eyes. She saw the creases under those eyes and the fatigue in how he carried his shoulders. He straightened up proudly to show her he really was feeling perfectly fine, but they knew better.

"Christopher," Millie said and found she did not know what to say. He gave her a little grin that looked terribly meager compared to the beautiful smile he seemed to reserve for only her.

"Have you slept at all these last few days?" she asked him and immediately felt foolish. Of course he hasn't, she grumbled to herself; he has been fighting a siege in the castle and worrying about _you_.

I'm talking to myself again, Millie added. She corrected herself by saying instead, "I missed you." That wasn't quite right either, she thought.

On the other hand, Christopher seemed to have stopped waiting for her to utter what she was attempting to say. (Something that she did not blame him at all for doing.) "I missed you also," he said with a slightly wider smile. His smile vanished, as if he too seemed to not know what to do.

Millie eventually decided to stand up and sit beside him. She found herself leaning against him and pressing her face into his shoulder. What a simpering thing to do! she thought, as tears began to prick at the corners of her eyes.

Christopher did not appear to mind, however, as he pressed her closer to him awkwardly with one arm wrapped around her. "Aren't you going to answer my question?" he asked with a slight nervous chuckle.

Mille felt awful then. He must be so quiet and unsure of himself for not knowing my answer, she thought, but it should be obvious! She lifted her head and met his searching eyes. Taking a deep breath, she said, "Of course I will marry you, Christopher Chant."

He inhaled sharply and gave her that smile that she loved so much at full force. He laughed long and loud when Millie added, "And I promise we shan't end up like certain people and have to communicate through servants and have governesses teach our children."

"Of course not," he said. "Because we are going to have seven or eight children with you making the castle all neat and lovely for me everyday and…"

Millie slapped his arm. "Don't even jest," she grumbled, but she knew he was only joking.

"Never, Millie," he whispered, and she felt his breath noticeably on her face as he leaned in a little closer. She found she could not stop grinning despite being terribly afraid she would somehow wreck what she knew Christopher was about to do. At the same time, here they were sitting on a cold boulder in a place that was really not much of an actual place, but wet and breezy all the same, and she had just agreed to marry him.

It was her who reached behind the other's head and brought his lips to hers. She kept her hand there, as she felt warm all over, and entangled her fingers in his thick, dark hair. Christopher's hands were at her waist and rubbing circles with his thumbs. Millie dimly knew that several of her teachers back at school would have all fallen faint at the sight of them even simply sitting there kissing.

Just when Millie thought that all breath had been whooshed out of her, Christopher broke away. After they had taken a moment to pause and think about what had just occurred, Christopher brushed his hand over the ring on her finger. Millie felt another protection spell, this one Christopher's and probably the strongest he knew, settle over the ring and then pass over onto her.

"Do you think she will find me then?" Millie asked. There was no need to explain who Millie meant.

"I don't know to be honest, but that also doubles as a misdirection charm," Christopher sighed.

"When can I come back then? Not until Gin is gone?" Millie hissed. She wanted to take the angry tone back though. Christopher had winced as if it was a physical blow, but he easily recovered his composure.

"You have Henrietta and Mordecai at least," Christopher said. "And don't think you aren't doing anything of worth. The other worlds in Series Twelve need to know."

"I know," Millie sighed. "However, it does not mean I like it."

"I never said you had to," said Christopher with a laugh. "Just be safe, and remember – " Christopher was about to say something more, when his body seems to flicker. Millie's eyes widened and she grabbed his hand.

"I'm being called to a world, but I'm in two places!" he grumbled. Millie had a moment in which she wanted to scream at whoever was calling him, and then he vanished without even saying goodbye. Millie stood in surprise, while wondering if he would return. After ten minutes of silence and tension, she sighed and realized Christopher was not coming back.

"Who called him?" she angrily wondered aloud. She knew, however, that just because Series Twelve was in trouble, it did not mean that the rest of the Related Worlds would stop having problems so they could fix it.

Millie transported herself back to the incline into the valley of Twelve B. She stepped down into it carefully and snagged her skirt on a protruding rock. She unhooked herself and hopped into the world. There were the familiar garbage in the streets and the automobiles racing past. She felt warmer, giddier, than she had leaving for the World Edge.

Millie was walking up the road back to Mrs. Sheldon's home when she stepped on a design scrawled into the concrete. The design, which she realized belatedly was a sealing spell in the shape of an octagon with lines leading from the points to the middle, lit up with a red glow and similar light latched onto her ankles.

"So, Millie," said a voice in an alley to her left. "Where have you gone so late at night? To see your little fiancé?"

"Mr. Sheldon!" Millie shouted. "What are you doing this for?" James Sheldon appeared in front of her with a lazy grin.

"Oh, no reason," replied James calmly. "I'm just curious as to why you have that ring and where you've gone."

"That's none of your business!" hissed Millie. The light wrapped around her ankles was holding her firmly in place no matter what spell she performed in her head.

"Maybe not mine, but I know someone who wants that little ring of yours," James stated.

Millie froze and narrowed her eyes. "You know Gin Leiko?"

"Smart girl," said James. "I told Gin as much, but she said you were just a silly little girl who still thinks she's a goddess."

Millie ignored him and demanded, "Is your mother in on this too?"

"Ol' Vicky Sheldon? You have got to be jesting," said James. "She worships that Gabriel de Witt fellow."

"So you are going against your mother then?" asked Millie, while at the same time, she was moving a pencil over paper in Mordecai Roberts's room. She had a feeling he had heard the scratching of the lead on paper and was watching the message.

A little longer, Millie thought. Just a little longer. I won't let him get this ring.

"What about Mordecai and Henrietta?" Millie queried.

"Those two nobodies?" asked James. "Just because they're enchanters, doesn't mean I have to worry about them."

We shall see, shan't we? Millie thought, as she finished signing her name with one final stroke. I hope he saw that.

She returned her full attention upon James and said, "How do you expect to remove the ring from my finger when both Christopher and I have put the strongest charms we know upon it?"

"Oh, I can think of a few ways," said James. "If all else fails, I have a knife in my pocket."

Millie found that even though her forehead was dripping with sweat and her hands were balled into shaking fists, that her face was remarkably calm. As she saw Henrietta appear behind a rubbish bin a few feet away and nod to her, she smiled coolly at James.

"I don't think force will be necessary, Mr. Sheldon," she said.

"Then you'll give me the ring without a fight?" asked James with surprise.

Chuckling, Millie said, "Of course not. What I meant is that you're not going to get a chance to try anything on me."

"Is that so?" James said with a cold laugh. "Well – " It was at this moment that Mordecai and Henrietta came at James from two sides and tossed a handful of spells at his feet and abdomen, so that he collapsed in a flash of blue and green sparks.

"Are you okay, Millie?" asked Henrietta, as Millie stepped easily from the spell now that the owner of the seal had been immobilized.

"It was a good thing you wrote to Mr. Mordecai and not me," said Henrietta with a slight grin. "I've never been one to believe in mysterious writing utensils."

"I was about to return to the castle as it was," said Mordecai. "I needed to return to my body for a bit."

"What are we going to do with him?" asked Millie, as she indicated the prone James with her foot.

"We're going to have to send him to Gabriel with me, as I don't have anything we can use to question him officially and he's a danger to us," Mordecai said.

"His mother won't like it, but he is a traitor," said Henrietta.

Millie sighed and said, "Back to Mrs. Sheldon's house then for us?"

The other two nodded, and Mordecai levitated James's body after them. "Millie, what were you doing out here anyway?" asked Henrietta.

"I – oh," muttered Millie. She sighed and looked up at the starry sky. "I went to meet Christopher," she finally admitted.

"What?" gasped Mordecai. "What is that boy thinking? They need him over there, and if he gets caught…" He trailed off, but Millie and Henrietta understood. Without Christopher, Gin would easily overtake the castle's defenses in the area Gabriel's people had been forced to take up residence with the rest of the castle already taken by Gin.

* * *

"Christopher," Millie said to him, as he visited her in her dreams that night, "you shouldn't be here. They need you at the castle." 

"Bernard is handling it for a bit," Christopher said vaguely. "Jason would, but he seems to have become comatose now and – "

"What?" cried out Millie. "I thought the curse wasn't taking that quickly! He – "

"I know. I know," said Christopher, as he sat on the end of her bed, while she furiously paced. "But it's more of a healing coma then one caused by the curse. His body is slowing down the curse. One of the maids is taking care of him."

Millie was not surprised that Christopher did not remember the names of any of the maids even after living in the castle so many years. He seemed incapable of recalling anyone he did not deem important. She shook her head at him and said, "How much of the castle is under Gin's control?"

"Only the part farthest away from the gardens actually," Christopher explained. "We regained the library and the front hall without much trouble. The bedrooms on that side seem to be firmly under her control however."

"What world did you go to?" she asked, as she noticed the red welts on his inner wrist and seized his hand.

"It's nothing," claimed Christopher. "I was only in Series Two. I got attacked by one of their big eels is all."

"Why isn't it healing then?" demanded Millie, as she ran her fingertips over the raised bumps.

"I don't know," Christopher said. "Those are just from an eel though."

"An eel laced with silver no doubt," said Millie with a sigh. "You have been going to worlds a lot lately and you come back tired every time. I think it might be Gin's doing. She's putting silver in your path."

"Don't talk nonsense!" said Christopher, while pulling his hand away from her. "I don't feel a bit like I've been touching silver."

"You will in a second if you keep lying to me. I swear I will send you home by making you touch silver," Millie hissed.

When he was sure she was serious, Christopher sighed and said, "It was an eel, but I felt like I had had the wind knocked out of me when I touched it. So, do you think Gin has been setting up all these missions to other worlds?"

"She did say she has people on other worlds," Millie said. "It makes me wonder if they're deliberately causing trouble so you will come there and come in contact with silver. Or even if they're not causing the trouble, if they're instead taking a normal problem and putting in silver somehow, like with the eels or making you go in that silver mine."

"That isn't terribly farfetched," admitted Christopher. "She even had an inside man of this James Sheldon fellow you sent to us. I think Gabriel was a bit fond of his mother. He was livid when he heard who was captive in his office for questioning."

He tipped his head to one side, as if listening for something and said, "I have to go. Bernard is calling me back. I think Gin might have destroyed something…"

He stood up and kissed Millie before vanishing back to join his body. Millie imagined it was probably lying on a couch and starting to stir as Bernard, who had been nervously keeping a lookout for Gabriel, told him to hurry.

She paused and knew that in a moment she would wake up in her bed in Victoria's home. Why am I never awake when he comes to visit me in the worlds? she thought. Is it a different way of contacting me? A way that Gabriel won't notice unless he sees?

She yawned and found herself awake in her own bed. Smiling wearily, she climbed out of bed and stared out at the rosy sky that dawn brought. Today, she felt, was going to be different than all the others that she had spent with Henrietta, Mordecai, and Victoria Sheldon wondering what would happen to the worlds of Chrestomanci.

* * *

**A/N: Hopefully that chapter made up a little for the long wait. Next chapter, which I haven't started yet (oh dear), should include more Christopher/Millie "dream" interactions.**


	8. An Unfortunate Turn of Events

**With This Ring**

_By: ChocolateEclar_

Disclaimer: I do not pretend to own Chrestomanci or the Related Worlds. I only own the random children that appear to mess up things every once in a while. Everything else but the plot is the property of Diana Wynne Jones.

**A/N: Well, the good thing is I updated in less than a year this time. Please read, review, and enjoy.**

_**Chapter Seven: An Unfortunate Turn of Events**_

Millie sat in the sitting room among the musty scent of pine that came off the little basket of potpourri on the table in the center of the room. Henrietta read a little leather-bound book she had discovered in the bookcase in the foyer. Their waiting for Mordecai to finish up some last minute chat with Mrs. Sheldon was taking longer than Millie could manage. Henrietta did not seem bothered, but Millie knew they needed to go to the other Series Twelve worlds as soon as possible.

She did not realize she had dozed off until the scent of the pine disappeared and she realized Christopher was standing over her with a start. "You keep putting forth an awful risk talking to me," Millie insisted.

"Stop fretting," Christopher said grandly, as he sat in the chair to her left that Millie knew in real life was currently being used by Henrietta. This is so strange, she thought.

"Everything is quiet at the moment in the castle anyway, which probably just means Gin is about to pull something spectacular, but," he paused dramatically and fingered the fringe on the arm of the chair, "you need not worry about that."

"I am worrying though," Millie replied.

Christopher put his feet up on the table to recline more comfortably. "I have even developed a way where I can communicate with you by channeling that life in your ring like this, while still interacting in our world normally with my other life."

"But only when I'm asleep," said Millie.

Christopher nodded and said, "The only thing of interest that is happening here is my parent's discovered I gave you my life ring."

"What did they say?" Millie asked with a grimace.

"Oh, the usual," Christopher said flippantly. He paused and then did a rather flawless impersonation of his mother with a voice a little too deep, "Oh, darling, I know this engagement to Miss Leiko did not turn out as we had hoped, but that does not mean you have to turn to someone so… so…" Here Christopher paused and winkled his nose much the same way Millie could see his mother doing.

"What? So plain? Boring? Lowly?" Millie suggested.

"No," Christopher said in his normal voice. "She called you 'familiar.' And," he added vehemently, "you are _not_ plain or boring or lowly!"

"I was just – " Millie began before Christopher continued on his tirade.

"I don't know what those stupid schools taught you," he yelled, "but they have given you an inferiority complex the size of Series One!"

Millie did not know quite what to say to that, so she just shook her head.

Christopher sighed and relaxed his tense shoulders a bit. "I do think, however, that you ought to wear more color," he offered.

"I will keep that in mind," Millie replied with a slight smile.

Christopher stood up and said, "You are waking up. Be careful in the next world." He kissed her forehead.

Millie awoke with Henrietta now standing above her. "Time to go," she said. Millie nodded, while staring past Henrietta at where Christopher had been in her dream.

* * *

Millie hated Twelve F more than Twelve B. She had not thought it possible, but everything smelled. She was not normally so fussy, but everything (yes, she thought, _everything_) was covered in mud and it took approximately two minutes for her walking boots to have wet, brown muck inside them squishing in there with her stockings. Even the hemline of her skirt was soiled. However, Millie would not have been so annoyed if it were not for the grimy, little boy who took a lump of mud and tossed it at the back of her head. There, it mixed with her dark hair and made her cringe in horror.

Henrietta bore it much more gracefully and had no problem tying up her skirt in the back so that it did not drag in the dirt. When the boy threw dirt at Millie, she launched a volley of mud right back at him, while Millie stared pitifully at her hair.

Mordecai knew the world fairly well from his travels and led the way to the person they needed to find. His boots were knee-high under his pants. Millie envied him terribly.

Well, she thought, I have now been dragged through the desert, the ocean, been shot at, been stoned, been cursed, and now dragged through filth. What next?

She knew she should not have asked it, even silently, as it was like a bringer of doom. She nervously checked to make sure her ring was still on her finger. It was, albeit now the same color as the dirt on her hands.

Cautiously, she looked up to see Henrietta sink beneath the mud on the path before them.

"Henrietta!" she shrieked. Mordecai reached out and grabbed Henrietta's reaching hand, as the girl was pulled into the thick, brown slop.

"Hang on," Mordecai yelled to Henrietta, as she sputtered and tried not to take in any mud.

Millie tossed out a spell to propel Henrietta out of the mud and it worked well enough that Henrietta then went crashing into Millie.

Letting out a relieved sigh, Mordecai said, "Are you all right?"

"I've been better," Henrietta said.

Millie sighed, as Henrietta dragged their muddy bodies apart. "_Argh_," Henrietta grunted when her boots made a squelching noise as she stood up.

Her front and back now thoroughly covered in brown sludge, Millie did not bother enchanting her clothes to become mud-resistant. She had a feeling that mud was all this world had and she did not dare go against the identity of a world.

"This world has trains and cars like ours does," Mordecai explained as they picked their way through the forest. "The mud is from the _literally_ one-hundred-and-fifty-year rain they had. Most people died and now they've created a lot of roads hundreds of feet above the old ones so they can use their vehicles."

"What caused this world to form in history?" Henrietta asked.

"The start of the rain," Mordecai said. "The rain was the result of a failed weather spell. In Twelve G, the weather spell worked, so their history is quite different."

Mille wondered if people bothered to bathe on this world. It seemed rather pointless. If she had been born on it, she probably would have tried to fight the elements to stay clean.

The scenery finally changed to a dingy, equally brown hut off the right of the path. They had to wade through waist-deep mud to reach the place, and, when they clambered up the front stoop, Millie considered just lying down and dying in that mud, except that seemed like a very melodramatic Christopher-way of dying. (She could not actually picture Christopher dying in mud, as he would probably be too busy going mad over his clothes, however.)

Mordecai knocked on the door, sending splatters of muck flying out at Millie's face, but at this point she did not really care. They could hear a lot of clanking of bottles on the other side and then a face caked with mud greeted them. Millie wondered if the people of this world swam in mud. That was certainly how this woman looked. She seemed to have just jumped in the sludge and then let it dry on her skin by the cracked, faded color of it.

At the same time, there was something strange about this woman. Millie could not place it, but it bothered her. Mordecai said, "Hello. I'm Mordecai Roberts. This is Millie and Henrietta. You must be Caroline Mathers."

"Yes, and it's a pleasure," said Caroline. Millie was rather impressed by this genteel attitude despite the conditions of this world. Still, she did not like this woman and she did not know why.

Millie purposely hid her left hand in the pocket of her skirt as she shook hands with Caroline. She watched as Caroline gazed at the hand she had been offered with an air of amusement.

Maybe I'm just seeing something because I'm getting paranoid, Mille thought. Still, that night she slept curled tightly in a corner with her left hand hidden close to her.

* * *

"I see you're on Twelve F," said Christopher knowingly in her dream that evening, as he looked at her muddied clothes. She had not even bothered changing for bed, as there was not really anywhere she could change in the little hut.

"You wouldn't last three seconds on this world," Millie said, as she crossed her arms at him from where she sat on her blankets.

Christopher was pacing the edges of the room where people really slept. He smiled and said, "Well, not in a dressing gown, that much is certain."

"The woman we're staying with," Millie started and then wet her lips before beginning again. "Gabriel wouldn't just pick any old person to be an operative on a planet, but she worries me."

"How so?" Christopher asked, as he sat down next to her. His movements were as fluid as a cat's and his eyes glowing in the light coming off the little fire grate in the center of the room.

"I don't know," Millie admitted, as she fingered the ring. She could feel Christopher watching her and was surprised when he rested his warm fingers atop of hers.

"I'll see you again the next time you sleep," he finally said, as he kissed her cheek. "Be safe."

When Millie blinked up at the first rays of gray sunlight coming in from the little windows at the top of the hut, she could feel tears starting in the corners of her eyes. Something had been wrong with Christopher. His normal, somehow still boisterous nature, even with the siege, had vanished, and, more tellingly, his hand had shaken when he laid it on hers.

Taken fully by surprise when the blow came, Millie could only gasp when the club came down on her forehead. She saw a strange pattern of color and then there was nothing.

* * *

The first thing Millie noticed when she woke up was that she was up to her collarbone in thick mud and the hut was nowhere in sight. The second thing was that the face above her was that of Caroline Mathers.

"I tried to cut your finger off, but it didn't work," the woman told her blandly. "The blade just kept bouncing off. Your skin seems to have become impenetrable from your fiancé's spells."

Millie's throat was dry, but she managed to croak, "Why are you doing this?" Her feet were weighed down by something tied to them, and she felt, quite acutely, like a cat drowning in water.

"Have you guessed what I am yet?" Caroline asked. She held a small basin of water beside her, which she dripped a clean towel in. Millie wondered where she had found clean water, but that was not her most pressing worry. She obstinately remained silent as she tried to come up with a spell that would counteract whatever spell the woman had placed heavily on the binds and the weight.

Caroline took the towel and covered her face in it. When it emerged, the now-black towel revealed a face faintly tan that looked considerably younger than it had looked with the mud covering it. The hair was lighter too, but still a dark brown, and the cheeks were round. Millie's eyes went wide in disbelief, as she frantically tugged against the bonds below in panic.

"This has never been done before, but Gin is rather talented," Caroline said. "Never before has two such as us met, but it does not affect the balance of worlds considering we're in a totally different series than where we were born."

"You're me," Millie whispered. She knew about the worlds within the series and all that, but she had never really entertained the idea of there being a girl who looked and sounded exactly like her when all pretenses were stripped away.

"I'm the you of World Ten D," the other said. "My name is Aspen and I too was once the Living Asheth. Now, give me that ring."

"Why should I?" Millie asked. I need time! she thought, as she ran over more and more spells in her head.

In response, Aspen reached over the boat she was sitting in and dunked Millie's head in the mud. Millie only had a second's notice, so she barely breathed in any air before she was drowning in the muck. She could not scream or even really struggle. When Aspen dragged her back up, Millie's thoughts were scattered and her eyes painted over with mud. She coughed up the mud she had accidentally swallowed.

"Now, the ring," Aspen hissed.

Millie shut her eyes and held her right hand out of the mud. Aspen snatched the gold ring out of Millie's palm and said, "Thanks. Don't think I'm going to save you now, but at least you won't be in too much pain."

Millie resolutely stared at Aspen and stayed silent, as she fingered the ring still on her hand. It would give her time if she ever lived to see Mordecai or Henrietta again.

This time, when Aspen thrust her head under the mud, Millie took a big gulp of air beforehand. Under the mud, Millie felt the dormant mermaid spell take shape. She had tied it up and kept it ready to use. She could not open her eyes because of the mud, but she could feel a flipper and gills taking shape on her body as Aspen held her under.

Breathing mud was not the same as breathing water, but it was more like polluted air to those that breathe above the water. Millie continued to struggle convincingly and then lay still as if she was dead. She peered around the darkness of the mud and found she could see only a little better now. At least the mud did not bother her eyes so much anymore.

When Aspen's boat began to pull away, Millie followed the ripples in the mud from underneath. She felt nearly choked by the mud, but it was better than drowning. Unfortunately for Millie, the trail became abruptly difficult to follow when over twenty boats crossed paths with Aspen. Being buffeted this way and that, Millie effectively lost Aspen, and, therefore, her way back to Mordecai and Henrietta.

As she poked her head above the water with her hair slippery and green again, Millie thought about yelling, "Chrestomanci! Chrestomanci! Chrestomanci!" but she did not. Instead, she conjuring a window to the Place Between and dragged herself into it. She transformed her legs, skin, and hair back to normal and shivered in the cold, damp land.

She had to get a message to the castle that the Millie with Mordecai and Henrietta was not the real one. She did the only thing she could think of and used a spell to create a little tent on the edge of the Place Between. She curled up and struggled with sleep for an hour that felt like days.

She realized she must have fallen asleep because Christopher suddenly appeared in a corner of the tent, looking out of place and breathless. "What's going on?" he asked when he saw her mixture of delight at seeing him and panic.

"The other Millie isn't me!" yelled Millie.

Christopher looked at her vaguely and then slowly said, "What?"

Millie explained the situation to the best of her ability. When she had finished, Christopher said, "I expected her to mess this up." He smirked wryly.

Millie froze and looked at him properly. His hair was too perfect even for him. Christopher, although vain, had not bothered to comb his hair in the crisis. That smirk was not Christopher's either. Yet, she knew as well as everyone else that this was not a Christopher like Aspen, as he was a nine-lived enchanter.

That left other, more dangerous possibilities then.

The fake Christopher seemed to realize that she knew he was not who he appeared to be because his smirk widened. Laughing, he said, "You've made an error, Millie."

Without wasting a moment, Millie sprang out of the tent, pushing the flap aside, and teleported randomly across the Place Between. At one point, she appeared above nothing and had to teleport again because she knew there would be no one to grab her this time from tumbling into a valley.

She catapulted herself into Twelve B, only to feel a hard grip on her arm tearing her back into the Place Between. She hoped wildly that it was the real Christopher, but there was a bigger part of her that knew that it was unlikely.

"Nice to see you too, Millie," said the Christopher imposter, as he lashed out with a spell that tied her wrists and ankles together. Slowly, as if it were just a dance move to the imposter, the Christopher twirled and came out of the spin as a woman with long black hair and red lips. She smirked again, and Millie recoiled.

"Gin," she muttered, as she fell down with her limbs pinned behind her.

"I had a feeling Christopher had been meeting you out here," Gin said, as she smoothed her coppery brown skirts in place. "It's a pity Aspen did not kill you. I will not be quite so gentle about it, especially considering I know your ring decoy tricks."

"I _am_ sorry to disappoint you," Millie said sarcastically, as she shivered in her muddy, wet clothes. "However, I have no intention of giving you my engagement ring." At this time, she felt like acting rather like Christopher to everyone, and Gin, naturally, was going to get the maximum force of her wrath.

"Then we have a problem," Gin said, as she crossed her arms.

"Correct," Millie said, as she did inched closer to the edge of the valley. She smiled a little and said, "I'm sorry about this." Then, while kicking dirt in Gin's eyes, she rolled off the rock she was lying across and tumbled down into a valley. She could hear Gin shrieking as she fell down for what felt like forever once more.

She managed to free her wrists and ankles with a spell. It was just in time for her to collide with the pavement and all breath to whoosh out of her. She grunted and looked up blearily to see a black car coming at her. She sucked in air through her teeth, as brakes squealed all around her. "Damnation," she cursed, as her hatred for Twelve B was reinforced.

* * *

**A/N: Poor, poor Millie in this chapter. She just keeps getting beat up.**


	9. The Castle

**With This Ring**

_By: ChocolateEclar_

Disclaimer: I do not pretend to own Chrestomanci or the Related Worlds. I only own the random children that appear to mess up things every once in a while. Everything else but the plot is the property of Diana Wynne Jones.

**A/N: Well, the wait was considerably less time this chapter. Enjoy!**

_**Chapter Eight: The Castle**_

One thing in a thousand that day went right for Millie: the car stopped just three feet from her. Naturally, the driver then proceeded to lean out of his car window and swear at her, but at least he stopped.

"Get off the road, you bum!" shouted someone else. Millie felt mildly insulted, but she figured the ruined clothing and mud sort of did nothing for her image. As it was, the words "Swiss finishing school" seemed very far off that day for her.

She did not waste much time in dragging herself to her feet. There wfas something wrong with her left wrist, but she had to hide before Gin went after her, so she quickly ducked into an alley.

Should I go to Mrs. Sheldon? she wondered, as she headed off in a random direction. As she came out on the other side of the alley, she realized that there was no way she was going to be able to find Victoria Sheldon. This London was only vaguely like the London she had visited for school trips and even less like the London she had briefly glimpsed when her and Christopher had snuck out to see the circus.

"Let's go to the circus," Christopher had announced that day with his usual aplomb. "We can sneak to the train and be back before anyone notices."

"What are you prattling on about?" Millie had asked absently, as she flipped through _Millie Becomes Engaged_, a present from Christopher for his "endless debt for Throgmorten," which Millie decided just meant he was too embarrassed to admit he just wanted to make her happy by buying her a book. She was sitting on the edge of his bed in her new lace-trimmed dinner gown. It was very popular at school before she left for the summer holidays, but Millie secretly found it just rather itchy and annoying. She did not want to admit this, however, as she had obstinately spent all of her spring allowance on the dress.

"I do not _prattle_," said Christopher with disgust. "I just said we should go to the circus."

"But I don't have any money for another week when I'm given my summer allowance," sighed Millie.

"I have enough for both of us," Christopher claimed.

Presently, Millie wondered if perhaps Christopher's gesture had been fueled by something more than friendship even back then, as she hurried off down another road and alley. Still, it had been nice to rush off on another adventure with him, and they had met Henrietta as a result of it.

Something hard collided with a side of the brick building Millie was passing, and she automatically dived onto the concrete. Several people screamed and Millie wearily pulled herself to her knees. She was not at all surprised when she saw Gin standing in front of her on the sidewalk glaring at her.

Gin grabbed the front of her blouse and pulled her to her feet. Millie attempted to struggle, but her body seemed paralyzed by some sort of spell. "Who are you really?" she said angrily.

"I was born in the one world of Series Eleven," Gin stated.

At this simple pronouncement, Millie groaned and said, "Let me guess. The Dwight was mad that some twelve-year-old twerp beat him at his own game?"

"Hardly," Gin replied with a malicious smile. "My family is trying to dethrone the Dwight with the power of the Chrestomanci because he was weak enough to lose to such as you people."

"Oh, well then," Millie muttered. She watched as once again Gin changed. Now, her porcelain skin had turned as coffee-colored as Mordecai Roberts', and her dark hair became distinctively curly on the ends and more brown than black. "I suppose your name isn't Gin either?" she continued.

"No, but I won't be telling you my real name," Gin said. "I chose Gin because of its origin on this world in Japanese. It means silver."

"Clever," Millie said with a frown. "By the way," she added, "I thought all people from Eleven think loyalty is the most important virtue, yet you are going against the Dwight."

"Yes, but the Dwight is no longer the strong leader that we once followed," Gin said.

Millie remembered a little boy wrapped in furs, a bossy girl with feathers on her head, and a worn man wearied by travel going to Series Eleven to rescue Gabriel de Witt's lives. It did not terribly surprise her that Eleven had some issues with the Chrestomanci now. "Couldn't you just leave the rest of the worlds alone and stage a rebellion on Eleven?" Millie suggested. She could hear sirens off in the distance and people trying to figure out what was going on. As much as she disliked Twelve B, she did not want to mettle in its history.

Gin tightened her grip on Millie's shirtfront and said, "Now, I do not think you understand me. Give me that ring before I destroy you."

Millie opened her mouth to retort and decided on something better. Grinning, knowing that Gin was probably about to hurt her a lot and not really caring, Millie shouted, "Chrestomanci! Chrestomanci! _Chrestomanci_!"

A figure approached them, strolling leisurely dowfn the sidewalk. Gin screamed and shoved Millie at the remains of the brick wall, effectively pinning her there. The figure appeared at Gin's shoulder, as Millie made eye contact with him and smiled despite the pain in her back.

Christopher snapped his fingers and a glowing, white ball appeared between Gin and Millie. Millie, recognizing the same ploy he had used to distract people when they were getting in trouble as children, shut her eyes. A moment later, a blinding flash of light burned Gin's eyes, and she felt Christopher's warm hands pulling her to him.

When she opened her eyes, he had taken them back to the Place Between and was pressing his lips to her forehead. "Oh, Millie, Millie," he said lightly. "I was wondering when you were going to call me. I couldn't find you after Tacroy said that he was sure the girl with him was not you."

"How did he know?" Millie asked curiously. It was nice to be pressed up against Christopher, she decided.

"Several reasons," Christopher replied, as they walked towards the entrance to the valley of Twelve A. Christopher turned bright red but awkwardly held onto her hand as they stepped over the wet rocks. "The most pressing was that your double did not seem to know the difference between Bernard and Conrad." Millie laughed, as Christopher continued, "She is also complained bitterly about the mud. We both know who the grumbler is in this relationship and it is not the one who went to a Swiss finishing school for ladies."

"I did hate Twelve F though," Millie pointed out.

"It's understandable," Christopher replied.

"By the way," Millie said, "Gin is from Series Eleven. She's apparently trying to become the Dwight."

"She's trying to become a thousand-year-old tyrant who walks around in really ugly furs and trinkets? That seems rather unflattering for her," Christopher said. "Oh, watch your step." They both hopped into the mist over Twelve A and came out of it in Gabriel de Witt's office. Millie watched as a familiar scene of minor chaos was enfolding in that room, just as it had when the castle had been under siege against Christopher's uncle. They seemed to be a lot of maids, including Yolande and Beryl, who Millie could tell apart by sheer knowing, while Christopher just called them Yolande-Beryl to be safe.

"Millie!" shouted Elizabeth from where she was sitting in the armchair by the window brewing some sort of foul-looking, green potion in a big tea kettle. She dropped her wooden spoon in the liquid, but did not seem to mind as she grabbed Millie in a gigantic hug. "We were so worried, especially when Mordecai sent a letter saying he didn't think you were with him anymore."

"I wasn't," Millie said, smiling. "My double felt obliged to hit me over the head and dump me in the mud." Well, she thought, that was rather sarcastic and Christopher-like. I really must stop that.

"And you're engaged and I didn't get to congratulate you!" Elizabeth said, as she gave Millie another hug.

"I'm sorry your honeymoon was interrupted," Millie said.

"Oh, that's all right," said Elizabeth. "At least this way Antonio and I can be useful here. He's off with Bernard. Apparently there's an herb in the garden the gardeners know that will help with Jason, but none of the gardeners are enchanters, so they're off with a thorough description of the plant, while I'm stuck here making the broth for the special health soup."

Millie watched the spoon faintly sizzle in the bubbly, slimy soup and was rather glad she was not Jason at that moment. Jason might appreciate it though, she thought. He does love plants.

When Millie turned away from Elizabeth after Elizabeth had made her swear that Mille would send her a wedding invitation in Italy when the date was chosen, she almost ran into Gabriel. As tall and skeletal as always, he stood over her forbiddingly for a moment before a small, rueful smile came upon his lips. Millie was sure she had not imagined it because he said, "So Christopher was not just being overly dramatic."

Millie was not sure what he meant by that, but she nodded slowly. She would have to ask Elizabeth about that later. For now, she went to see what Miss Rosalie, Flavian Temple, and Conrad were attempted to create in another corner of the room. Miss Rosalie was loudly yelling at Flavian for worrying too much with her black-mittened hands on her hips. Conrad rolled his eyes and took the black box they were hovering around in his hands and turned it upside down in order to work on the little symbols on the bottom with a gold paint brush. Millie really would miss him when he left in a month to go back to Series Seven. Unlike herself, Conrad was not a part of Series Twelve from using one of Christopher's lives to travel, so he had to return in order to keep from fading. Being one of the few people who could tell Christopher to "stow it," everyone was feeling the loss looming near.

"Hello, Millie," Conrad said calmly, peaking up at her through his overly long fringe. "Congrats on the engagement."

"Thank you," Millie said. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to create a soul snatcher," he replied. "It's going to be kind of like how I was able to snatch that lady's soul up in a picture back in Stallery. I'm using a bit of Twelve B technology to set it up to be motion sensitive."

"Where are you going to put it?" asked Millie.

"Well, we're going to try to set it up in the hallway by the bedrooms at the other end of the castle," Conrad explained, as he frowned at a scratch on the side of the box. "That seems to be where most of Gin's people are located. The problem will be deciding who's going to put it there."

"Understandable," Millie muttered.

"That's what they're arguing about," said Conrad, indicating Miss Rosalie and Flavian with a jerk of his head. "Pretty much the entire castle staff is out as a grand majority of them lost their magic in the Wraith incident. That leaves Gabriel (which isn't going to happen), Christopher (also unlikely as we don't want to endanger the future Chrestomanci either), Mordecai (who already has a job), you (Christopher had a fit when it was suggested), Henrietta (we pretty much already decided that she isn't sneaky enough), Bernard (same reason), Jason (but he's kind of busy being in a coma), Elizabeth (Antonio wasn't thrilled about that one), Antonio (Elizabeth said he couldn't go either then), and me. So I guess I'm going."

"Oh, I'll go with you. Watch your back if you like," Millie whispered.

"Christopher would kill me," Conrad deadpanned. "Besides, he wants you to go with him to London to meet with Mordecai Roberts, Henrietta, and your imposter. Your double thinks they are going to Twelve C, but those two will lead her to Twelve A and make sure she tells us what she knows."

"I don't want you to do this by yourself," insisted Millie. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one, especially Christopher, was in earshot as she said, "It will only take half an hour or so, right?" She was not lying either. She really did not want Conrad to do it by himself just because Christopher had decided to be overly protective of her.

"Probably," Conrad said warily. Millie knew that Christopher could not push him around, but she had a feeling that she could do it.

"So, let's go plant it," Millie said. "No one will even know we were gone until we get back and tell them."

"At which time, Christopher will slaughter me," Conrad maintained.

"I swear everything will be fine," Millie said.

Conrad groaned and said, "I'll be ready in three minutes." He continued to scribble away at the symbols on the box, effectively reinforcing the spells, as Millie watched Christopher and calculated how long it would take him to notice. He was in an argument with Gabriel over something again. She suspected it had something to do with him taking needless risks. The irony of what she was about to do did not pass her. She frowned and cast a quick spell on her boots to clean them. She despaired over getting more cleaned up _and_ sneaking out, so she returned to wait patiently for Conrad.

He straightened and tucked the box under his arm. "Ready?" he asked weakly. Millie nodded, and he added, "Just so you know. I have a very bad feeling about this."

Casually acting as if Conrad was going to go show Millie something in the hallway, the two of them slipped away, right by Miss Rosalie and Flavian's argument. "Are you sure you want to come?" Conrad insisted.

"Yes," Millie said. "You need someone to watch out for broomsticks and chairs and such attacking you."

Conrad heaved a greatly put-upon sigh and said, "Let's be off then."

Both of them made sure no one was looking and then snapped their fingers. Instantly, two invisible people traveled down the hallways of the castle. Millie was struck by how unearthly quiet it was, even for the castle. Usually you could at least hear some child screaming off in the distance, but there was nothing.

"Where are all the children?" Millie whispered in the general direction she thought Conrad was in.

"In the tower back there with the gardeners," Conrad's voice answered.

They did not speak or make a sound for the rest of the way to the bedrooms. Millie wondered if there were people in her room and that made her think about poor Proudfoot. She hoped the cats were also safe in the gardens or in the tower with the children.

As she was lost in thought, she did not notice right away that there was a pale-haired man in a gray suit at the end of the hallway staring right at her. When she did, she froze and reached out in an attempt to find Conrad. He sees us! she thought in panic.

When the man started reciting a spell, she heard Conrad yell, "Run!" She felt him brush up against her as they ran back from where they came. Midway down the hallway, the spell hit Conrad in the back and Millie heard the black box clatter to the floor and skid away. Conrad landed heavily on top of her, so that the invisibility spells around them were jarred loose and fell away.

A visible Millie dragged herself out from under an equally visible Conrad. Conrad dragged both of them to their feet, but it was too late. "Stop where you are," commanded the voice of the man. Now, he was right behind them. Conrad cringed and grimaced at Millie, as they waited for more instructions.

"Bring them to me," came another voice back where they had first seen the man. He grabbed both of them by their shoulders and steered them around.

The familiar face of Gin (porcelain white again) smirked at them. "Nice to see you again, Miss Millie," she said.

"Christopher is going to murder me," Conrad muttered. Millie wanted to ask him where the black box had gone, but she suspected it was visible again from the fall and hiding in a dark corner of the hallway.

"This has been a busy day for you and me," said Gin. "I would like to introduce my brother."

Millie glanced behind her and saw a faint family resemblance in the man's face. "So who's going to be Dwight?" Millie asked.

"I will be, of course," Gin responded.

Millie looked at the man again. "He seems sort of skeptical," she said to see if the man would react.

"He can't be," Gin said with a laugh. "I took part of his soul. He has no way to think about such things."

"Oh," grumbled Millie. The man's look had seemed sort of vacant. What a horrible thing to do! she thought.

She looked to see if Conrad had any ideas on how to distract Gin and her brother, but he was staring at Gin calmly.

"Give me the ring," Gin ordered. "You may be indestructible with all those spells on you, but your friend here is not."

Conrad raised an eyebrow at her as if he had been expected as much out of Gin and said, "Really now, do you think anyone at this school is useless without Christopher?"

Before Gin could reply, Conrad broke away from the man and grabbed Millie. After that, everything seemed to bend and twist as Conrad used his magic.

"What's going on?" came Gin's voice. She sounded distant even though she was only a few feet away.

"It's a skill I perfected from being able to photograph the possibilities when I was a kid," Conrad replied, as he shifted the conditions a little bit so that he and Millie were now a safe distance away. "I can shift the possibilities briefly when I build up enough strength to push at them," he added. Then, he reached down and plucked the black box from the floor.

The next thing Millie knew, they both were sitting in the office with all of the others. "I felt that, Conrad," Gabriel said, as he glanced at them when they suddenly appeared.

"I had to, sir," Conrad said, faintly pink from embarrassment. The hand he had wrapped around Millie's arm was clamming from the effort of his magic.

"What did you do?" hissed Christopher. The question appeared to be directed at both Conrad and Millie. "I felt that magic rattling in my bones. I hate your possibility transfiguration."

Everyone seemed to be waiting for an answer and Conrad looked almost sick, so Millie said, "I made him take me along to plant the black box."

Christopher's sharp intake of breath preceded a long tirade from half the staff of the castle. In the middle of it, Conrad fell asleep and was taken to a quiet room where they had set Jason.

* * *

"Well, are you coming?" Christopher grunted, when Millie returned to the hallway outside the office after making sure Conrad would be fine.

"Where?" Millie asked softly.

"To London, of course," grumbled Christopher. "We need to catch your double."

"Are you certain I won't ruin everything?" asked Millie.

"W – Oh, I did say that, didn't I?" sighed Christopher.

"Yes, after you called Conrad a pushover," Millie replied.

Christopher hesitated, but Millie was obviously not coming with him until he made her feel a little better, so he said, "I – I'm sorry. I was just worried."

Millie smiled brightly and said, "Shall we go to the circus then?"

Christopher offered her his arm, as he said, "Of course. On to see your double!" Millie threaded her arm through his. "I wonder how you two compare," he added thoughtfully. "I suspect she would be better than you at cricket. One of your others must."

Millie lightly shoved him and said, "None of that, please."

Christopher laughed, as they lightly called up a spell to travel to London.

* * *

**A/N: A nicer ending to a chapter than normal. Please review.**


	10. Double

**With This Ring**  
_By: ChocolateEclar_

Disclaimer: I do not pretend to own Chrestomanci or the Related Worlds. I only own the random children that appear to mess up things every once in a while. Everything else but the plot is the property of Diana Wynne Jones.

**A/N: Sorry, sorry! I recently expressed hope in an email to a reader named Sarah that I would update before the end of 2007, but I guess I'm eight days late (Vacation and procrastination does that to me sometimes). Oops. Thanks again to my reviewers (hopefully some of you are still here…).**

**Enjoy!**

_**Last time…**_

_Christopher offered her his arm, as he said, "Of course. On to see your double!" Millie threaded her arm through his. "I wonder how you two compare," he added thoughtfully. "I suspect she would be better than you at cricket. One of your others must."_

_Millie lightly shoved him and said, "None of that, please."_

_Christopher laughed, as they lightly called up a spell to travel to London._

_**Chapter Nine: Double**_

"Christopher?" Millie asked when they had popped out into the rain. Millie frowned up at the sky disapprovingly. Really, she thought, as if it is not bad enough that I have been covered in mud!

"Mmm?" responded the other, as he untangled their arms in order to step up to the corner of the street to peer up at the street sign.

"Where were your parents?" she asked. "I didn't see them."

Christopher gave the sign a nod before twirling back around to her. Anti-wear and weather spells were keeping the bottoms of his neatly hemmed trousers from being soaked in the water that splashed up from the puddles, while Millie had given up on keeping appearances. She had at least gotten to remove the mud from her skirts before they had left, but her hair was still hanging in lank, dirty chunks so terrible that the heads at her school would have probably expelled her on sight. "Oh," said Christopher, "we banished them to the tower with the children in order to keep them out of the way. My father and Gabriel had a row over customs and how 'unfairly' we were treating Gin and all that blather when we were first attacked. Gabriel got the last laugh after my father took a good look at the candlestick turning into a man with a knife behind them and had the strangest expression on his face."

"I would be angry too, if I had been a candlestick," Millie said. "All that wax dripping on you… Christopher, are you even pay – What are you looking at?"

Christopher pointed up the street to a little café. Millie did not notice anything amiss until she realized that there was a person sitting alone under the overhang of the restaurant. Wearing a floral skirt that Millie found to be atrocious, Aspen was staring at them, while the water dripped off of the overhang and into a puddle.

Where are the other people? Millie wondered. The rain could not have hidden everyone for miles.

But the street and its surroundings were deathly quiet, as Aspen leaned back casually in her chair.

"She is a spitting likeness," Christopher thoughtfully remarked, "but she really should know better than to wear that shade of yellow. Even you don't wear that yellow jumper that Miss Rosalie made you for your birthday last year, and you are unfathomably polite."

"One of us has to be," Millie replied.

"Are you going to stop muttering and get over here?" her double hissed. The snarling frown was something Millie was fairly sure that her face had never formed.

"I assume that your lady sent you a message," sighed Christopher, as the two stepped closer. "It is disappointing that it would have to come to this, but I must insist that you tell me where Mordecai Roberts and Henrietta Hogan are."

"Oh, around," Aspen replied. Her smile was poisonous as she tossed her dark hair over one shoulder. Somehow, Aspen had had time to clean up, and Millie envied her for it. "I think we have more pressing concerns between Millie and me."

"Such as?" asked Christopher coldly. He and Millie stopped walking a few steps from the table. The restaurant was dark and empty behind Aspen, and Millie shivered from a combination of Christopher's tone and the chilly air.

"The ring," Aspen stated. "I need it."

"Want and need are a bit different – " Christopher began to point out before Aspen sprang from her seat and straight for Millie. Christopher shoved Millie out of the way so that she went sprawling into a puddle on the sidewalk, while Aspen raked her long nails across Christopher's cheek. When he stumbled away clutching his face, Aspen dove at Millie. Millie kicked out at her double, causing her shoe to fly off. While Aspen dodged the kick, Millie hurled a burst of spell at her that pushed her backwards and into the table.

Christopher took his hand away from his face to reveal three long scratch marks down one cheek. Millie winced sympathetically and then watched Christopher curl his fist to invoke a banishing spell. Angrily, Aspen launched herself at him before he could finish. He struggled to dislodge her, but she had dug her nails into his arms. The spells on his clothes easily repelled dirt and water as they tussled on the ground, but Christopher's hair had gone wild.

He managed to pin Aspen under him with his hands firmly locking her arms on the ground. She smiled wickedly and said, "Oh, I should've known that this is where we'd end up considering my face."

Christopher's face blanched, as Millie let out an indignant squawk. It was a long enough moment for Aspen to free one hand and remove the silver brooch from her blouse. She tossed it at Christopher, who jumped back and away from her and the silver.

Letting out a triumphant shout, Aspen jumped to her feet and grabbed Millie's left hand. "So it is true," Aspen said. "Gin had me deliver an order for a silver coffin from Series Seven, so I asked around among her boys." Millie tried to twist her hand away, but Aspen was pressing her pinky finger backwards.

"That sounds nice," said Christopher sarcastically, breathing heavily. "Now, let go of Millie. I shan't fall for any more of your tricks."

"Release your spells attaching this ring to her finger before I break her fingers," Aspen warned.

"I think I have a say in this," Millie hissed.

"I think not," Aspen said. Then, with a jerk, she pushed Millie's pinky in the wrong direction. Millie let out a stifled yelp. "Now. The spells."

"Christopher, don't you dare – " insisted Millie, as she tried to toss a spell at Aspen with her right hand and to ignore the pain spreading through her other hand. Aspen glared at her in annoyance, but otherwise did not seem affected. Millie wondered if it had something to do with being her double but Worlds were not a topic she had studied in school like Gabriel had engrained in Christopher.

Christopher shook his head slowly and motioned with his hands. Like a great weight being lifted, his spells disappeared so that only Millie's own remained.

"I don't need much to get rid of these," said Aspen with a smirk. She tugged on the spells so that they tore away. Millie struggled to pull away with the help of her right hand, but somehow, in the struggle, her ring finger snapped and the ring went freely into Aspen's hands.

"No!" Millie yelled. Aspen released her just as Millie let out a volley of propelling spell. Aspen was thrown backwards, and when Millie went after her, she disappeared back into the Place Between. Millie attempted to open the portal behind her, but Christopher grabbed her shoulders.

"Millie," he panted. The rainwater was not helping his hair any more than hers now that he was tired. It was drooping into his eyes in wet hanks.

"Don't," Millie said with the tears welling up in her eyes unbearably. "I am such a fool. If it wasn't for me, your life would not have been lost."

"Millie," sighed Christopher. Millie tried not to look at him, but the scratches on his cheek were slowly healing so that only faint marks remained.

"I mean, nothing ever goes right for me!" she went on. "I thought it was great to be the Living Asheth and then I was nearly sacrificed! And afterwards, I _finally_ get to my dream school, and it's absolutely horrible! The girls at that first school hated me! And Gabriel would not listen to me, so I had to run away, and then I got stuck in those horrible possibility worlds! And – "

"Millie!" Christopher shouted with a weary smile. "You are certainly not a fool and all of those things turned out right in the end, did they not?"

"Yes, but – " Millie tried to say.

"Yes, but that _is_ what makes this no different," Christopher said.

"Fine then," said Millie, trying to smile. "This is partly your fault too. I can mend fingers, you know. You did not have to – "

"Oh, but I did have to," Christopher sighed, as he smiled too. "Besides, I have no intention of allowing that woman to keep my life or, for that matter, your engagement ring."

"The life is a bit more important, don't you think?" Millie choked out in between bursts where her eyes felt like they would leak tears.

"I should hope you don't really think that," said Christopher. "After all, I have more than one life, darling." He had come to stand close beside her, and then Millie felt his hands rest awkwardly on her shoulders. "Millie, I know you feel bad about losing my life to Gin, but there is no need to worry about it. She doesn't have the real flesh and blood me under her control, nor does she have the best enchantress around under her control."

Millie sighed wearily. "She does have Aspen."

"Aspen just… fights unfairly," Christopher said uncomfortably.

Millie laughed. She felt better for it until a thought occurred to her. "You called me 'darling.' I really do not need you to use your mother's favorite word, Christopher."

"It's the thought that counts, if you ask me."

"I do not need endearments anyway."

Christopher chuckled into her hair. "Darling, darling, darling," he breathed.

"Oh, stop it," Millie said, laughing. However, her expression sobered quickly. "Oh, Henrietta and Mordecai. What has happened to them?"

"I suspect, as Conrad would say, if we moved to the right possibility, they would appear," Christopher said. "Haven't you noticed that no one else is here?"

Millie nodded. "It should fix itself soon with Aspen gone. I do worry that Aspen can manipulate them though."

"I'll ask Conrad about it when we return to the castle," Christopher said thoughtfully.

They waited for a few minutes, but it did not take long before a familiar voice shouted, "Over here, you two!"

Suddenly, the street was bustling again and they were two among many as the possibilities shifted. Mordecai and Henrietta came hurrying up to them. "She gave us the slip," Mordecai sighed, as Christopher rested his chin on Millie's head.

"We noticed," Christopher muttered. Louder, he added, "We need to return to the castle. Gin will have the ring in no time."

"She took the ring?" Henrietta gasped. She peered at Millie looking for injuries. Millie hid her left hand behind her. The broken fingers sent flashes of pain through her arm, but she ignored it.

"Come on," Mordecai said. "Lead the way."

Christopher and Millie transported all of them because the wards over the castle and many of Gin's spells were making it impossible for most to get inside. In the office, Henrietta rushed off to see Jason, while Mordecai discussed something with Gabriel in hushed tones.

Millie sat down on the couch and worked magic over her fingers. The realigning of the bones was the worst part to perform on yourself, she decided. Christopher sat dutifully beside her and insisted that they would get the ring back.

Truth be told, it did not put Millie much at ease.

* * *

**A/N: I've discovered that I can't promise when I'll update, but it should be a more reasonable wait than last time. Please review!**


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